Twist UpsideDown
by Kelsey
Summary: When a deadly disease befalls Lex, Clark will stand by his side. But how will the illness put a strain on their relationship and their relationships with other loved ones? Clex. updated- REALLY!
1. Prologue

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: I've always enjoyed reading epic H/C fics. So, I've finally decided to write one, and give back to the community. I do plan on this being long, and it is shamelessly H/C. No ending guaranteed yet, though!

Set-up: 2nd season, post- "Insurgence." AU after that, though I may or may not roughly follow the events of later eps. Clex, established relationship.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: G

* * *

Prologue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Lex, this isn't good."

"I know that!"

"You need to do something about it, before it gets out of hand!"

"I'm afraid that's not possible."

"Well, as your physician, I'm telling you, you're going to have to make it possible!"

"I'm the owner of a company and a major executive in another. I can't just take time off to be sick!"

"If you don't take the time off to be sick, you won't be _alive_ to be either of those things in six months!"

Sigh. "How long?"

"For what?"

"How long for the treatment? How long am I going to be puking my guts out in a hospital?"

"Well, not everybody experiences such radical nausea with the treatments-"

"How LONG?"

"The treatment will last at least three weeks."

"And on the other extreme?"

"Years, maybe. We really have no way of knowing."

"And there's no way I'm going to survive this without treatment."

"None."

Another sigh. "Alright. I'll check myself into Metropolis General the day after tomorrow."

"Mr. Luthor-"

"I'm a busy man. If I'm going to be out of commission for three weeks, I have things I need to put in order. The hospital will just have to wait for my scintillating presence until Friday."

"I'm going to put it on the record that I'm against waiting."

"You do that. Now, I have assignments to shift, and power designations to make, and this is going to take all of my attention for the next few hours."

The door clicked shut behind the frowning doctor, and Lex dropped into his desk chair. He sighed, and resting his elbows on the desk, put his head in his hands.

"This is just great," he muttered to himself. "Just great."

There was a brief knock on the door then, and Lex looked up. "Come in!" He called, and it swung open slowly to reveal Clark Kent on the other side. He was frowning, too.

"Lex, isn't that your doctor I saw leaving? Did you talk to him?"

Lex sighed. "Yes."

"Is something wrong?"

Lex sighed again, and didn't answer. Clark came closer, and hitched his hip up on the front edge of Lex's desk. Leaning over, he gave the younger Luthor that earnest, concerned look that nobody in Smallville could resist. "Lex?"

He nodded, reluctantly. "Yes."

"What is it?"

"Promise not to tell anybody, okay? I don't need this getting out before it has to."

Clark nodded solemnly, his eyes showing his genuine concern for Lex's health. "Sure. Now tell me, what is it?"

"I have leukemia."


	2. Sleepy

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****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: I've always enjoyed reading epic H/C fics. So, I've finally decided to write one, and give back to the community. I do plan on this being long, and it is shamelessly H/C. No ending guaranteed yet, though!

Set-up: 2nd season, post- "Insurgence." AU after that, though I may or may not roughly follow the events of later eps. Clex, established relationship.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: G/Over all: G

* * *

Chapter One - Sleepy

5 weeks earlier:

Lex curled into Clark's arms on his overly-expensive couch and yawned. Clark glanced down at him and smiled, stroking a hand gently over one taut bicep. "Tired?"

Lex nodded as best as he could. "Yeah."

"You shouldn't work yourself so hard," the teenager chided. Lex rolled his eyes.

"Because it's so easy to run a business," he replied sarcastically.

"You're the who's always telling me a good businessman knows how to delegate," Clark told him.

Lex sighed. "Yes, I am. Now, can I rest in peace?" His tone suggested that he wasn't actually annoyed, and Clark smiled.

"Yeah."

The billionaire yawned again, squirmed a little to get comfortable and closed his eyes. "Wake me up before you leave, okay?"

Clark nodded and leaned down to kiss his head. "Sure."

Lex fell asleep almost instantly, something that the teenager could tell by the gentle deepening and lengthening of his breathing. Clark smiled with affection at his best friend and lover, then settled in to read "A Tale of Two Cities" for English class.

When Lex's ancient clock struck ten, Clark reluctantly put down his book and stroked a hand over the billionaire's bald head. "Lex," he whispered. "I've got to go home."

When Lex didn't wake up, Clark took a hold of his upper arm and shook gently. "Lex."

The billionaire stirred, but still didn't wake. Slightly concerned but mostly just remembering how tired he had been earlier, Clark shifted until he could lift Lex's lanky form. Rolling Lex's head onto his shoulder, he stood and headed upstairs, knowing full-well by now where Lex's bedroom was.

Putting Lex down on the bed, Clark rolled back the covers, gave his habitual grin at the purple sheets and then pulled off Lex's shoes. Knowing he wouldn't want to sleep in his business suit, Clark pulled off his belt and pants, too, checked to make sure Lex had taken off his tie and undone his collar buttons, and then rolled him into bed.

Kissing Lex's forehead, Clark tucked the blankets in around him, then reached for the pad of paper and pencil he knew Lex kept in the bedside table. Hastily, after glancing down at his watch, he scribbled a note.

*************************************************************

Lex-

Couldn't bear to wake you up; you looked so tired! I'll call you tomorrow.

Clark

*************************************************************

With that, he sped home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming in the kitchen door, Clark closed it carefully, hoping not to wake anybody up, but it turned out not to matter.

"You're late."

Clark looked at his watch. "Only 15 minutes," he said.

Jonathan's expression didn't soften. "I need to trust that you will get home when your mother and I ask you to," he ground out.

"Dad, it's 15 minutes."

"I need to trust you!" Jonathan's tone was grim.

Clark, getting frustrated, slammed his backpack down and headed for the fridge. "You just don't like that I was with Lex," he replied, equally unfriendly.

"Damn right I don't!" 

Clark ignored his father, grabbing his backpack and walking away.

"We aren't done yet!" Jonathan bellowed after him.

Clark's tone when he replied was one Jonathan had never heard before: strong, commanding and arrogant, entirely sure of his superiority over the human race. "Yes, we are." With that, he disappeared into his room and locked the door.

The next day was Saturday, and when Clark awoke, later than usual, he found Martha Kent in the kitchen and Jonathan nowhere to be seen. He grabbed a muffin and was about to leave, but his mother stopped him in his tracks.

"Halt." The mom-power was in action, more powerful than and alien powers, and Clark stopped. "Turn." He had no choice but to obey. It wasn't like he _wanted_ to be interrogated. Yet, here he was. What was it about moms? "Sit down." She pointed at the table. "Now, tell me about what happened last night. Your father wanted to ground you, and I was going to let him! You can't talk back like that. Not in this family." Clark hung his head.

"But then I heard something about Lex, and I know how irrational he can be about the Luthors." Her tone was serious, and Clark knew that even though she was giving him a chance to get off the hook, he had some major explaining to do.

"I got home at 10:45," he told Martha. "I was only 15 minutes late, but Dad just exploded. He told me he needed to be able to trust me to get home when I said I would, and I know that's true, but I also know he would never have gotten upset if I was with Pete or Chloe!"

Martha sighed. "You're probably right," she conceded.

"He didn't even give me a chance to explain!"

"Would you like to explain to me, then, please?" His mother's tone brooked no arguments.

Clark shrugged. "Lex fell asleep. He was really tired and I had trouble waking him up when it was time to leave." He wasn't about to tell his mother the whole truth, but that was close enough.

Martha sighed again, then thought for a moment. "Okay. Here's the deal: no grounding, but you are going to apologize to your father about talking back to him. I don't care why you did it, it's not acceptable."

Clark nodded grudgingly, not happy, but willing, and Martha continued. "I'll see if I can get him to apologize, too, for over-reacting, alright?"

"Okay." Clark leaned over and hugged his mother. "Thanks. For running interference, again, you know."

She smiled slightly. "Well, your father does tend to go into full over-protective mode when exposed to Luthors," she admitted wryly. "But so far, Lex has done nothing to prove he's anything like Lionel, so I'll do my best to keep your father in hand."

Clark kissed her forehead, and disappeared in blur of light, leaving Martha to shake her head and ponder what to do about her entirely much-too stubborn husband and son.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clark waited until his parents were both in the fields to call Lex. He'd claimed he was going to do the barn chores, which he would... eventually... but mostly it was just an excuse so that he could stay behind a little longer.

Lex picked up on the third ring, sounding a little tired but not groggy, so Clark didn't worry that he'd woken him up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Lex."

"Clark!"

Clark smiled a little at the enthusiasm. "Are you okay? You were pretty dead to the world last night when I left."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry I didn't wake up. I wanted to kiss you goodnight..." Lex let his voice trail off.

"It's okay. You were really cute when I put you to bed... it almost made up for not getting that kiss," Clark teased.

"I am not 'cute.'"

Clark laughed lightly. "Yes, you are. You were absolutely adorable."

Clark could almost hear Lex shaking his head in bewilderment, wondering how he'd managed to end up dating this particular creature. "If you tell anybody else that, I'll make your life a living hell," he threatened. Clark just laughed.

"Can you come for dinner?"

Clark sighed. "I wish, but I got home a little late last night, and my dad kind of blew a spout. Mom talked him out of grounding me, but..."

"Say no more. Dinner's out, you can't be seen around the evil Luthor more than once in 24 hours."

Clark sighed again. "It's not that, Lex..."

Lex's tone was strange- a cross between dead of emotion and mildly amused. "Yes, it is. It's okay, Clark. I know how your father feels about me."

Clark couldn't really think of anything to say to that. It was true, after all, as much as he didn't want Lex thinking it. The younger Luthor had a tendency to be incredibly self-deprecating if left to his own thoughts, and Clark was doing his best to draw him out of that, but his father wasn't helping.

"I'm sorry. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Sure he doesn't. Look, let's just leave this conversation, okay?"

Clark agreed reluctantly, knowing that it was useless to try and convince Lex otherwise when he'd already made up his mind about something. "Okay. Call you tomorrow?"

"I'll be waiting." Lex's tone almost sounded as if he was wearing a smile, and Clark hoped he was. Lex didn't smile enough, and when he did, it meant he was really and truly pleased about something.

"'Kay. Bye."

"Good-bye, Clark."

The barn chores were, as he had expected, mind-numbingly dull. Clark usually avoided working in the barn like the plague- he liked to hang out there when he needed a place to clear his thoughts, but when he had to do real, physical work, he preferred to do it out in the open, where he could feel the rays of energy from the sun soaking into his skin, warming him and making him feel invincible. Therefore, when he'd offered to take the barn, no one had questioned, because his parents were both so tired of cleaning stalls and piling hay.

Lunch and dinner were quiet. Clark and Jonathan had been forced, under threats of no dessert for a week and sleeping on the couch for the same period of time respectively, to apologize to each other, but neither was really thrilled with the other, just the same. Martha did a lot of sighing, and her husband and son did a lot of glaring, but at least they managed to remain civil through the entire meal, both times.

When dinner was over, Clark retired to his room, claiming that he had homework to do, and Jonathan offered unexpectedly to do the dishes, so Martha sat down on the couch in the living room and started going over her pie and other miscellaneous dessert sales. She was just adding up the total for the month when the doorbell rang.

Pulling the door open, she smiled and then turned and yelled up the stairs before she greeted their caller. "Clark!"

"Hello, Mrs. Kent."

"Good evening, Chloe. It's good to see you."

Chloe shook her head, grinned, and bounced from one foot to the other. Martha could swear she had never met someone with so much energy. At least who was human. "Yeah. Things at school have been really out of hand lately. The semester ends in a month, and I think all the teachers are realizing how much they haven't taught us yet." She grinned again. "That's why I'm here. Clark's supposed to help me try and figure out coordinate geometry formulas. I'm hopeless."

Martha smiled, and stepped out of the doorway as Clark came pounding down the stairs. "Chloe, hey!"

"Ready to try and teach my brain something it really, really doesn't want to learn?" The blond asked with a smirk.

Clark nodded mock-solemnly. "I'm always up for a challenge."

She laughed. "God, I hope so. I really mean it, Clark, I totally don't understand this."

"Well, we'll just have to work on that," Clark told her. "Mom, can she stay for a couple of hours if we need to work that long?"

Martha nodded without hesitation. "Sure. Stay as long as you like, Chloe. Do you need to get home by a certain time?"

She shrugged. "Not 'til eleven, and we won't work that late, for sure. My brain would be mush!"

Clark helpfully demonstrated, lolling his head to the side and letting his tongue hang out, while he rolled his eyes into the back of his head. Chloe thwapped him, and bounded up the stairs. Clark recovered and followed her, flashing a grin at his mother as he went. "Thanks."

"Sure."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy]


	3. Scared

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****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

***Author's Note: If you're confused, this is how it goes: Prologue, chapter 2, etc... are in current time. Chapter 1, etc, (odd number) will be flashbacks for a while. If it says '_ weeks ago' at the top, it's a flashback. If not, it's in current time.***

Set-up: 2nd season, post- "Insurgence." AU after that, though I may or may not roughly follow the events of later eps. Clex, established relationship.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: PG

* * *

Chapter Two - Scared

Lex could see the news sink in as Clark's body slumped. "Oh, god." Lex didn't respond, just let his lover try to make sense of everything before he spoke again.

Moving a little more sluggishly than usual with the shock, Clark hopped off the deck and moved around behind it. Behind the desk was Lex's sacred space, something he really wasn't fond of anyone entering, even Clark, but as his boyfriend, the occasional trespass was overlooked. Lex stood up by habit, and Clark grabbed him, hugging him tightly to his body.

Lex melted. Against his will, his body started to shake with adrenaline and fear from the diagnosis, and he collapsed against Clark, who easily held him up. He didn't allow the tears that he felt threatening to fall- he was a Luthor, and he wasn't that far gone. But he couldn't seem to get his body to stop shivering.

Clark hugged him for a long few minutes, then stepped away and took Lex's hand to lead him out of the study. "C'mon. Let's go sit down, huh?"

Lex just nodded and followed him.

Clark led them confidently to the room that he supposed could be called Lex's living room- really, though, it was too posh for that title. Anyway, it had a couch, and it was where he and Lex curled up to watch television, so it fulfilled all the basic functions of a living room. Of course, it was also nearly as large as the Kents' entire house and had a bar in the back corner, but Clark wasn't having any trouble overlooking that at the moment.

Sitting down on the couch, Clark reached out for Lex, who let himself be pulled down against the firm wall of his lover's flesh. Sitting there, curled together, they were silent for long moments. Then, Clark spoke, needing to have his questions answered despite the urging in his head to just comfort Lex and leave them for later.

"Where are you going?"

"Metropolis."

"When do you go... go to the hospital?" He asked.

Lex sighed. "Friday."

"Shouldn't you go right away?"

"I have people to reassign, jobs to shuffle, paperwork to do, that's the earliest I can manage." His tone was clipped.

Clark turned Lex's head to face his, and cupped his skull in both hands. He could read the fear that Lex wasn't willing to admit to shining in his lover's eyes, but he couldn't lose Lex, not when he'd just found him, and it really wouldn't be any less scary on Friday. "Lex..." 

Lex didn't respond, just shifted his eyes so that he wasn't meeting Clark's gaze.

"Lex, please? I don't know much, but every minute counts, I know _that_ much."

"I really can't, Clark."

"Then give me a list of things that need to be done. I'll go to Mr. Sullivan, and I'm sure we can get them finished for you. I... I can't lose you." He paused. "Please, for me?"

Lex moved his eyes again to meet Clark's. He was silent for a long moment, just studying the look in the teenager's eyes. Clark's eyes were deep and blue, and full of the most honest concern Lex had ever seen aimed at him. He sighed. "Okay."

Clark hugged him briefly, and kissed his head. "Thank you," he murmured, and Lex leaned back against him again.

A moment later, Lex pulled away, though, and reached for his phone. Clark held onto his waist, keeping him firmly on his lap, but didn't interfere. Lex's fingers shook a little as he dialed, but his voice was steady. "Dr. Manson?"

Dr. Manson replied, and Clark heard the murmur of his voice, but couldn't make out the words. Well, he _could_, if he tried, but this was Lex's phone call.

Lex's voice was smooth, calm and emotionless. "I'll be in the hospital tonight. Alert whoever needs to know."

The conversation went on for a few more moments, then Lex hung up the phone and returned it to his pocket. Leaning back against Clark for a moment, he gathered his energy and sprung from the couch. Putting out his hand, he reached for Clark, who grabbed it and stood up. Silently, Lex walked them to his bedroom and then let go of Clark's hand to start packing.

Clark sat down on the bed and watched as Lex pulled shirts, pants and ties from his closet, smoothing them into the neatest piles of clothing Clark had ever seen in a suitcase. He added socks and underwear, undershirts and an old pair of sweats that Clark had only seen once- when Lex was really, really drunk. They were ratty and said 'Metropolis U' on them, but they looked well loved. 

Grabbing something from his night-table, Lex threw it into the suitcase and slammed the lid. Then he efficiently gathered his soap, toothbrush and things from the bathroom, added them to the mix, and latched the bag. "Okay," he told Clark, his voice dull, "Wish me luck."

Clark shook his head. "I'm coming with you," he told him. 

"You can't. It's four-thirty already, it'll be eight before we get to Metropolis."

"I'm coming, Lex."

The tone in his voice said 'don't argue with me, you won't win,' but Lex had always been one to play the odds. "What about your parents?"

"I'll tell them something. I'm coming, Lex, and you won't talk me out of it."

He sighed, then nodded and motioned to the suitcase. Giving as much of a tiny smile as he could manage, he handed it to Clark. "If you're so determined, you might as well make yourself useful," he told him, so Clark took the bag and Lex's hand, and followed him down the stairs to the front door.

"There'll probably be press all over this already," Lex told him. "They always seem to have their noses pointed in the right direction whenever I don't want them to look." He managed a weak smirk. "They're damn bloodhounds, and I can guarantee that you'll be on the front page of the paper tomorrow if you come with me. Are you sure you can handle that?"  
Clark nodded. "I'll be okay."

Lex shrugged, and stepped into the car. It was black, almost large enough to be a limousine, with extremely darkly tinted windows and a partition between driver and passengers. Clark gave the luggage to the driver, who loaded it into the trunk, and joined Lex.

The three-hour ride to Metropolis was quiet. Lex sat staring into space for most of it, and Clark only tried to talk to him once. After that, he was satisfied simply by holding Lex, who, though apparently wasn't thrilled with the idea, put up with it. Clark felt a little selfish, after all it was Lex who had to deal with this, but he needed to be in physical contact with his lover right then, and Lex would allow it, he knew, even when he didn't really want it. So, knowing that, he cuddled up right next to the billionaire and rested his chin on Lex's shoulder, staring into space every bit as blankly as Lex.

When they finally arrived, Lex had been right and the paparazzi was waiting for them in a frenzy of flashing lightbulbs. Clark picked up the luggage, careful not to take Lex's hand, as much as he wanted to, and followed the billionaire into the quiet of the hospital itself.

Three doctors met Lex at the front desk and escorted him up to the oncology floor. They didn't pay much attention, really to Clark, so he just trailed on Lex's heels. When they reached Lex's room, he put down the suitcase by the end of the bed and waited as Lex discussed something with the doctors. Without intending to, he sort of zoned out, over-adrenaline from the last few hours pushing him quickly into mental exhaustion.

"Now?" Lex asked, and Clark abruptly snapped back to the real world.

Doctor number one, he decided he'd call her, replied. "Mr. Luthor, you checked in here for treatment. We'd like to get that started as soon as possible."

Lex sighed, and Clark stepped up closer behind him, careful not to touch him while other people were in the room. It was Lex's rule, not Clark's, but while he usually hated it, he admitted he wasn't really ready to deal with the repercussions should his and Lex's relationship hit the public eye.

Still, that didn't stop him from moving up behind Lex and invading his personal space rather thoroughly, offering his presence as a support if he couldn't offer his touch.

"Fine."

The doctors were all professional now, and two of them quickly disappeared. Doctor number one pulled a gown out of a cabinet and handed it to Lex, who immediately shook his head. "No."

"Sir, it's sterile and it really provides us with the best access..."

Lex rolled his eyes minutely, then nodded reluctantly. The doctor, apparently satisfied, stepped out of the room and closed it behind her. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she called as she disappeared.

"What do they want?" Clark asked, only a little embarrassed to have to ask. He knew Lex was zoning a little himself. 

Lex started to strip, and dropped his clothes on the bed as he took them off, one piece at a time. It struck Clark as almost funny that he wasn't as compulsively neat here as he would be anywhere else, but he didn't know why. "They want a spinal tap."

Clark grimaced. He didn't know what that was, but it didn't sound fun. "Do you want me to stay?" He asked.

Lex didn't reply. Clark took it for a yes. Sometimes, even after a year and a half of friendship and two months of being lovers, Lex still didn't want to appear like he was leaning on Clark, even when he was or desperately needed to. Therefore, Clark had become fairly adept in Lex-language, which was like a rather complicated form of reading between the lines. "Okay," he replied, so that Lex would know he understood the unspoken message.

Lex pulled on the gown, and turned so that his back was to Clark, holding out the ties. Without a word, Clark tied them, and then sat back on the bed when his lover did. He tuned in his hearing as best as he could and then reached out to rub a hand up and down Lex's stiff back, knowing that spoken comfort would be useless at the moment.

He drew away reluctantly when he heard the doctors coming back. This time, there were only two of them, and a nurse, too. They worked efficiently, setting their things up on a tray and explaining the procedure. The more he heard about it, the less Clark liked it, but he didn't let any of his feelings show on his face, because he knew that Lex needed him calm.

The nurse swiftly undid the ties Clark had just done on the back of Lex's gown, and the doctor pulled the cloth from the tray, revealing what was on it. Clark paled a little, he knew, but Lex's face stayed perfectly composed.

"Okay, I need you to curl up on your side in a fetal position with your back near the edge of the bed," the first doctor told him. "I won't lie to you, this is going to hurt, but I need you to stay still."

Lex nodded as he lay down, and the doctor continued. "You're going to want to stay very still for about half an hour after this, too, or you'll probably get nauseous." She glanced at Clark. "Do you want him to stay?"

Knowing that Lex didn't want to answer that question, Clark did it for him. "He does."

Getting no reply from Lex, the doctor nodded reluctantly and moved around behind him. Clark crouched down on the floor in front of his lover and surreptitiously took his hand. Lex clutched it, harder than Clark knew he meant to, because he loosened it quickly, trying, even now, not to show worry. Clark never hated Lionel more than when Lex was scared, because Lex could be terrified, scared to death of something, and he still wouldn't allow himself to lean on anyone else. 'Trust no one' had been ingrained in him at an early age, and it wouldn't go away so quickly.

The doctor swiped a cloth over the middle of Lex's back, and he shivered, though whether it was from cold or fear, Clark wasn't sure. Since Lex wouldn't hold onto him, Clark tightened his grip gently around Lex's hand, and held on.

Lex twisted his eyes shut and twin tears appeared in the corners of both as the needle slid between his vertebrae and into his spinal column. Clark leaned down, uncaring of the doctor's presence, and kissed them away, then continued to press kisses gently against his lover's face as more tears appeared. 

Lex's body was taut and his face was pale, his breaths extremely shallow. Clark ran a hand over his bald head and spoke in a soothing tone. "Lex, breathe. You have to breathe."

The billionaire seemed to gather himself slightly, and he opened his mouth and took a deep breath. It seemed to hurt him, because he winced, but his face grew slightly less pale and his body relaxed infinitesimally. 

The doctor sat up behind him and handed the syringe to the nurse who was waiting for it. "There," she told them softly. "All done."

Lex didn't respond, and Clark just nodded. The doctor pressed a hand to Lex's head gently, trying to convey her sympathy it seemed, and Clark didn't blame her. In this position, Lex didn't look anything like the threatening business man he usually was, in fact, he seemed young and injured and the doctor's maternal instincts had clearly noticed.

Clark continued to hold Lex's hand with one of his, and stroked his face gently with the other as the nurse and remaining doctor packed the tray up again and disappeared. Lex didn't open his eyes for a long minute, but when he did they were full of pain that he had clearly pressed back as far as possible in his mind.

"Hey," Clark said softly. "You gonna be okay?"

Lex started to nod, then remembered he didn't want to do that. "Yeah."

They sat in silence for another few moments, then Lex spoke again. "Call your parents," he told Clark, clearly trying not to give him a choice in the matter.

"I'm not leaving you." Clark was just as adamant.

"My phone's in my coat pocket. Use it." His eyes told Clark that this was something he wasn't going to get out of doing, so, reluctantly, he let go of Lex and grabbed the phone out of his jacket, returning to the chair beside the bed with it clutched firmly in his fist.

Dialing his phone number, he braced himself for the irate-parent response this was definitely going to warrant. It was nine o'clock at night on a weekday, and he was going to be in big trouble. He could only hope his mother would answer the phone, because at least then he might have the chance to get a word in edgewise.

Fate, or whatever divine influence he believed in was with him, and Martha Kent picked up the phone at the farm. "Hello?"

"Hey, Mom."

"Clark! Where are you?! Where have you _been_?!Do you know what time it is?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm sorry."

Her worry fading a little, Martha picked up the stress in her son's voice. "Clark? Is everything alright?"

Clark sighed. "Not really."

"Did another mutant something happen? I hadn't heard anything- are _you_ alright?"

"I'm fine, and no, another mutant thing didn't happen. I'm in Metropolis."

"You're in Metropolis?" Martha sounded suspicious, but willing to listen, so far.

"I'm at the hospital. Mom... Lex is sick."

Martha seemed to need to digest that for a moment or two, and then she replied again. "Oh? Well... _why_ are you in Metropolis, with Lex?" She sounded cautious, like she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Just a sec, okay?" Clark motioned to Lex that he was going outside to continue the conversation, and Lex gave him as much of a smile as he could. As much as he didn't want to leave Lex's side, he wanted to continue this next to his lover even less. Closing the door behind him, Clark leaned against the wall just outside Lex's room.

"There was no one else who would have come, and as much as he won't admit it, he's scared, Mom."

Martha softened a little, having taken somewhat of a liking to Lex during his frequent visits to the Kent household. "What's wrong, Clark?"  
Clark sighed, his voice shaking a little. Lex might be scared, that was certainly true, but what he neglected to mention was that Clark was scared, too. He knew how serious this was- he knew that Lex might not make it through this, and Clark really didn't have a clue how he'd manage if that happened. "He's got leukemia."

Martha's breath drew in quickly enough that Clark could hear it over the phone. "Oh, god, Clark."

"Yeah. That's what I said."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared]


	4. Bloody

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

***Author's Note: If you're confused, this is how it goes: Prologue, chapter 2, etc... are in current time. Chapter 1, etc, (odd number) will be flashbacks for a while. If it says '_ weeks ago' at the top, it's a flashback. If not, it's in current time.***

Author's Note 2: There is fun-making of the Bible in here. I think fairly mild, but you've been warned.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: PG

* * *

Chapter Three - Bloody

3 weeks earlier:

"Lex!" Clark called as he entered the kitchen. "You here?"

Though Lex ran a plant and a business, he was never prone to being an on-site kind of manager, and could often be found in the castle, despite it being during work hours. Therefore, Clark often stopped by after school to talk and sometimes... _not_ talk with Lex. 

He'd worried for a while that he was interrupting Lex, and had stopped coming quite so often. Lex had then started showing up after school every day to pick him up. Clark hadn't complained about that, and Lex was smart enough to realize that if he showed up at the school, Clark would spend as much time with him as he liked, but if he didn't, Clark frequently didn't show up at all. 

He forced the confession out of the teenager, and then told him to stop by whenever he wanted, because Lex was frequently in the middle of incredibly boring work. Clark had protested that 'incredibly boring' didn't mean 'not important,' but Lex had told him that 99% of it could wait, and if it couldn't, he'd tell Clark. With this assurance, Clark had started showing up every day that he could, again.

Now, Clark entered the kitchen, nodded at the cook, who had her head in a cookbook, appropriately enough, and dropped his backpack at the table. Heading into the main part of the house, he called out again, and this time, Lex answered.

"Up here!" Lex looked at him from the top floor, leaning over the rail. "Just a second, I'll be down." His words were slightly muffled because he had his finger in his mouth, and Clark frowned, a little confused, but nodded in response.

A moment later, Lex appeared, this time with his finger by his side, wrapped in a piece of kleenex. "Hey," he greeted Clark, walking with him to the study. "How was school?"  
Clark groaned, and threw himself onto the sofa. "Boring. And then hard. And then more boring. And then lunch. And more boring."

Lex grinned. "Ah, the wonders of a public high school education. I remember it fondly."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "You went to public school? I thought the great Luthor heir would have gone to the most elite private schools during his teenage years."

"I went to private school at first. Then I got kicked out, went to boarding school for a while. Ran away from that, and Dad brought me home so he could keep an eye on me personally. But none of the private schools would have me, so I got to experience the joys that the masses of teenagers are forced into."

"You got kicked out of two schools?"

Lex smirked. "More than two, Clark. One private school, three boarding schools and one public school. In that order."

"What did you do?"

Lex shrugged. "Drugs, mostly. The headmaster's daughter a couple of times, but that didn't get me expelled, just suspended. The dean's son, once. Now _that_ got me expelled." He grinned mischievously at a fond memory. "It was a Catholic school. And I broke every rule I could find. It was kind of a hobby during my rebellious teenage life."

"Boring rule-breaking, or fun rule-breaking?"

Lex shrugged again. "Both. Sometimes it was boring rule-breaking, and it was just breaking a rule for the sake of breaking a rule. Like, not wearing a uniform. Then there was fun rule-breaking. But most of those involved either drugs or the headmasters' daughters, and I already told you about those."

Curious, Clark queried as to something that he'd always wanted to know. "What was the best rule-breaking experience you ever had?"

Lex leaned back, and seemed to think. "I don't know. Including or excluding sex ones?"

"Excluding."

"Well, then I guess it was the time I and a couple of my classmates tied a package of the boring, stodgiest teacher in school's edible underwear to the flagpole."

Clark laughed. "Did anyone know whose they were?"

"Of course. What fun would it be if we didn't humiliate him while we were at it?"

Clark shook his head. "And the best sex-related rule you broke?"

"I don't know. That one's harder, cause sex is always fun." He looked slightly concerned for a moment, an expression that Clark knew was as close as he was going to get to a 'oops, messed up' look from Lex. "Not loving, or earth-shattering, but just fun."

"I knew what you meant, Lex."

He looked a little relieved. "I just didn't want you to think what we have isn't special to me. It is, Clark. I promise."

"I know."

There was silence for a moment, during which Lex pulled the kleenex out of his hand and off his finger. "Damn it!"

Clark stood up and walked over to him. "What did you do to it?" He asked.

"It was a paper-cut. A damn nasty one, from a piece of cardboard, but it should have stopped bleeding by now." He frowned. "Can you go get me a band-aid? They're in my bathroom cabinet."

Clark nodded. "Sure. Just a sec." And, indeed, the teenager could have returned within a second, but he didn't, because Lex didn't know about his abilities. Well, he did, Lex wasn't stupid, but he hadn't specifically _told_ him, yet.

When he returned bearing band-aids, he also brought some antibiotic ointment he'd found next to it. "This should help stop the bleeding, too," he told Lex, and held it out.

Wrestling the cap from the ointment and refusing Clark's help, Lex smeared it over his finger. Then, he allowed Clark to put the band-aid on, and wrap it smoothly around his finger and over itself. He wiped the excess ointment on the bloody kleenex, and put the band-aids on the table next to him. "Where were we?" He asked.

Hesitantly, Clark answered. Lex was right, the conversation made him a little uncomfortable, but he did want to know. He wasn't that kind of person, he'd never have Lex's exploits, and he wanted to know about what the billionaire had done as a wild and crazy teen. "You were telling me about the best sex-related rule-breaking you've ever done."

Lex leaned back. "Yes, I was, wasn't I." It wasn't a question. He paused. 

"I'm not really sure. Maybe it was when I was a sophomore at this prep school, boarding school of course. We had this gym teacher who told us to do something, and then would read his book or the newspaper of something and never look up unless he stopped hearing the proper noises. So, of course, we'd all goof off the entire time, and take turns hitting the ball or swimming laps or whatever it was, so that he wouldn't look up and see what we were doing.

"I met this girl that year, Elizabeth. She had quite an exhibitionist streak- and I was a teenage boy. As long as it was sex, I was up for it. So, we were in this gym class together, and our teacher sat in this lounge chair that was maybe two or three feet high. It was a weird chair. Anyway, everyone else was in the pool, and they all thought we were just pressed up against the wall, kissing, but if the teacher had looked down, he would have been able to tell... how much more we were doing."

"Oh, god, Lex." Clark was grinned. "I can't believe you did that."

Lex grinned back. "Neither could I, after it was over. The teacher never did look up from his book, though."

"You really had sex in a swimming pool with an entire gym class in the water, and your teacher sitting on the side."

"Yep." Lex sounded quite proud of himself.

As soon as Clark could get his laughing under control, he queried Lex again. "You said you weren't sure, maybe that was the best one. What about the other one you had in mind?"

"Ones," Lex corrected. "And I'll tell you about one of them."

"Why not both?"

Lex grinned. "You'll understand in a few minutes." He paused again and reached over to pour himself a glass of scotch or brandy or whatever it was he kept in that incredibly fancy crystal bottle on the table at the end of the couch. "This one was senior year. I was younger than the class- I skipped third and fifth grade when I was little. So I guess I was your age."

"Wait. So you were only thirteen when that thing with the girl, Elizabeth, happened?"

Lex thought for a moment. "Fourteen. It was after my birthday that year."

Clark didn't respond, he just looked surprised, and Lex grinned at his reaction before he continued.

"So, it was senior year, and the class wanted to pull a really crazy prank. There was even this counsel where we talked about what we should do, and it got really crazy. Anyway, we decided if we wanted to do something really insane, we'd have to do it after graduation, so they couldn't kick us out, which actually worked, since we were supposed to stay one day after graduation and listen to an 'inspirational reading' of poetry. Our parents were all going to be there, too. It was the perfect setup.

"The reading was on this stage that was used for all the plays and stuff, too, so there was this platform that could be lowered by a rope, and it was meant for one person. I was the smallest guy in the class, I had just turned sixteen, and since there were going to be two of us, and I was already known for my willingness to do... outrageous things, I got picked.

"This school was not particularly... open to gay relationships. It was a public school, and we do live in Kansas, and most of the guys were homophobes themselves, but they thought it would make a great senior prank _and_ have the added benefit of making them look sensitive about 'alternative lifestyles' to the girls, so they went along with it.

"Then we heard they were going to recite a piece from the Bible last, and it was just too perfect an opportunity to miss. So, right as they were starting their Bible-worship, I and this classmate of mine, Chris, climbed onto the platform and started kissing. I mean, really kissing, and groping each other up, and a bunch of the guys who were upstairs lowered us down until the audience could see us.

"It was such a laugh! They couldn't stop gasping, and my father got up and bellowed out 'Alexander James Luthor, what in God's name do you think you're doing?!' at the top of his lungs, and I broke away from Chris long enough to say 'Not in God's name, Dad,' and then the guys pulled us up again."

Lex was grinning, almost laughing by now, and Clark was looking more and more incredulous. "You really did that?" He asked.

"I did."

"What happened?"

"The school threatened to kick us out, or put it on our records or something, and Chris and I reached into out backpacks and pulled out our diplomas and waved them in their faces."

"What about with your dad?"

Lex sobered. "_That_ was not fun. But it was worth it."

Having been picking at the bandage the whole time, he had finally pulled it off, and he swore again. "Damn it!"

"It's still bleeding?"

He nodded. "Why won't it stop?"

Clark grabbed the kleenex and pressed it to the wound, a little harder than he would have normally, and Lex flinched just slightly. Clark apologized, but didn't back off. "You need to stop the bleeding," he said. "Something's wrong."

Lex shook his head. "I'm fine, Clark." He pushed Clark's hand away and pulled the tissue away gently. "Look, it finally stopped. It just needed a little more pressure than I put on it." He motioned to the band-aid box. "Hand me that, will you?"  
Reluctantly, Clark handed him the band-aid box and sat back in his chair. "Are you sure you're okay, Lex? You've been really tired, lately, and now you're bleeding a lot harder than you should have over a paper-cut."

"I'm fine."

"You should see a doctor."

Lex laughed, a little bitterly. "Clark, my doctor doesn't even know who I am. He gets paid to be here and make it look like I take care of myself. I haven't been sick since the meteor shower."

Clark furrowed his brow. "Then you should be more worried about it, shouldn't you?"

"I promise, I'm fine. Now, leave it, please?"

Clark knew that tone, and he also knew if he kept pressing Lex to see his doctor, all he would get was himself kicked out of the house and a pissed-off boyfriend, who still wouldn't see his doctor. "Okay."

Changing the subject, the remarked on the first thing that came to mind. "Why won't you tell me about the third contestant for best sex-related rule-breaking?"

Lex laughed. "Are you telling me you really want to know?"

Clark grimaced a little. "On second thought, no. Thank you."

Lex grinned. "That's what I thought."

"Look, I have to get home, okay?"

Lex nodded. "Yeah, I know. Do you want me to come get you after school tomorrow?"

Clark shook his head. "No, that's okay. I'll come by myself. And I'll tell my mom I'm gonna do my homework here, so I can stay longer."

Lex smiled. "Good." He stood up and walked with Clark to get his backpack, and then head out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Take care of yourself, Lex." He glanced pointedly at the bandaged finger, and Lex rolled his eyes.

"Good-bye, Clark."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody]


	5. Stay

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

***Author's Note: If you're confused, this is how it goes: Prologue, chapter 2, etc... are in current time. Chapter 1, etc, (odd number) will be flashbacks for a while. If it says '_ weeks ago' at the top, it's a flashback. If not, it's in current time.***

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. So far, PG

* * *

Chapter Four - Stay

"No, you cannot stay in Metropolis on a weekday night with Lex Luthor!" Jonathan Kent roared into the phone. Had Clark been normal, he probably would have had to hold it away from his ear so that it didn't deafen him. As it was, he was getting impatient with his father and was eager to return to Lex.

"Dad, he's scared."

Jonathan snorted. "I bet he is."

"Dad!"

The elder Kent male sighed. "Alright, I believe you that he's scared. Anyone would be when they got that kind of a diagnosis. But you can't stay!"

"He's all alone."

Jonathan muttered something that sounded like 'well, that's his fault', and Clark bristled.

"He's not his father! How many times does he have to tell you that?"

Jonathan didn't respond to the question, assuming, as Clark had known he would, that it was rhetorical. "The answer was no, Clark. It's a school day and it's late enough already."

Clark sighed, not wanting to have to reveal his hand, but he would if his father insisted on forcing it. "He's terrified, Dad. He didn't speak a word on the way here, the doctors could barely get him to stay put. They did a spinal tap and he cried, it hurt so bad. Have you ever seen a Luthor cry? He's nauseous as hell and they're going to pump poison into his body starting tomorrow."

"Clark..."

At that point, somebody interrupted. Martha had been listening silently on the other line, but had decided enough was enough and it was time to intervene. "Jonathan, let him stay. He's Lex's only friend, and he needs somebody by his side to get him through this."

Jonathan sighed again, having been wavering already. "Fine. Tonight. Not again."

"Not even weekends? Dad, he needs somebody around, if I'm not here, nobody will be."

"We'll talk about it when you come home. Which, by the way, you must do by seven o'clock tomorrow night."

Knowing this was the best he was going to get, Clark agreed. "Okay. Thanks, guys, really. I know Lex appreciates it, too."

Jonathan sighed. "We'll see you tomorrow, Clark."

"I'll call Chloe and see if she can bring by my homework tomorrow."

"We'll let her in if she shows up."

"Okay. Bye."

"Good-bye, son."

"We love you, Clark. Be careful."

"I will."

Hanging up the phone, Clark sighed. It was times like these when he really wished he didn't have to keep the secret of him and Lex for so long- his parents were so trusting of him, and they loved him wholeheartedly... yet he knew that they couldn't handle the idea of Lex and he being together. They were Kansas farmers, and as much as they were liberal in every way that they could be, they had been born and raised in a homophobic community. Not to mention the plain old hating-of-Lex thing that his father had down to an art.

"Lex?" He poked his head into the room before entering. His lover was, as before, lying still curled up on his side, but now he was clearly impatient, and Clark was glad to see some of the arrogant billionaire he loved come back.

"Clark. How long do I have to stay like this?" There was a dry tone in his voice that he always got when he knew that he either looked or sounded ridiculous, or had in recent memory.

Clark looked at his watch. "Sorry, Lex, you've got fifteen minutes left."

The billionaire whined like a small child. "Do I have to?"

His lover smiled. "Well, no, if you feel like barfing all over the place."

Lex grimaced. "I think I'll wait, then, thank you very much."

Clark smiled. "Is is okay if I make another call? I have to ask Chloe if she'll take my homework to my house tomorrow."

"You're staying?"  
Clark nodded, then suddenly got insecure. "Unless you don't want me to."

Lex smiled, the gentle smile he reserved only for Clark. "Of course I want you to. I just didn't think..."

"That my dad would let me?"

"Yeah."

Clark grimaced a little, then grinned. "It took a little convincing. And by a little, I mean arguing until I was blue in the face. But he let me stay."

Lex didn't smile, and Clark leaned over. "What's wrong?"

"Other than the obvious?" At this, he cracked a wry smile. "It's just... you shouldn't fight with your father over me, Clark."

"Oh? What should I fight him over?"

"I don't know. Boring, teenage stuff. Your curfew. How far you can let your boxers show in public. All the stuff that sixteen-year-old's who aren't my lover do."

Clark shrugged. "I don't have to argue about my curfew, I don't have one. I don't wear butt-hang jeans. And I want to be here with you."

Lex closed his eyes, and was silent for a moment. Clark waited, as patiently as he could.

"I should tell you to go home."

"But you're not going to," Clark predicted, knowing Lex well enough to guess what he was thinking.

"No. I'm not. Because I'm a bad, selfish man who doesn't want to be alone tonight."

Clark leaned over in the chair and ran a hand softly over the side of Lex's face. "You are not bad or selfish, Lex. I wouldn't want to be alone any more than you do if I was in your place."

Lex looked about to speak again, but instead, closed his eyes and nuzzled his head into Clark's hand. He was silent for long moments, and Clark just watched him, equally still.

It was Lex that broke the silence. "How much longer?"

Clark glanced at his watch. "Five minutes." They fell back into the comfortable silence after he spoke, though Lex flexed a few muscles, experimentally seeing what made him dizzy and what he could handle. Clark just watched.

Lazily, Lex's eyes ran up Clark's body until he met his lover's eyes. "Call Chloe," He said softly, holding out the phone that Clark had given to him when he was done calling his parents.

Clark took it. "Do you want me to..."

"Stay quiet about why you're here?"

Clark nodded.

Lex winced. "I don't want to tell you to keep secrets from your friends, Clark."

"But you'd rather I didn't tell her."

Lex shrugged slightly, wincing again, this time in pain. "No, actually, it's fine. She'll find out as soon as she gets on the 'Net tonight, anyway. Might as well learn it from you."

Clark searched his lover's face for a moment, then nodded. "Okay." He dialed the number that he knew by heart into the tiny phone, and held it to his ear to listen for Chloe to pick up.

And pick up she did. Rather excitedly. "Hello?" Clark could hear the tension springing from her.

"Chloe."

"Clark! I called your parents as soon as I heard, but they told me that you were with Lex, and I don't have his cell phone number, or I would have called you! Is it true?"

Clark ran a hand through his hair. "Depends on what you heard."

"That Lex... that Lex has cancer."

Clark sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, that part of it's true."

"Oh my god, Clark."

Clark laughed, a little humorlessly. "You're the third person to say that today, Chloe. First me, than my mother, now you."

"I... just don't know what else to say. Is it operable, Clark?"  
He sighed. "No. He has leukemia."

"That's... cancer of the blood, right?"

"I think so. Look, can you tell my teachers I won't be in class tomorrow, that I had a family emergency? And if you could drop off my homework at the house, I'd really appreciate it."

Chloe sounded kind of dazed, like she always did when she was running in full reporter mode. "Yeah. Sure, Clark. Say hi to Lex for me, okay, and tell him the town's rooting for him."

Clark smiled. It was just like Chloe to say something like that, even when half the town hated the young billionaire. "Yeah. Sure I will. Thanks, Chloe."

"No problem. Hey, does Lex mind if I write a story in The Torch about this?"

"Just a second. I'll ask him." Clark covered the mouthpiece of the phone with his hand tightly, knowing Chloe would be listening to see if she could make out what Lex would say. "Chloe wants to write a story about you in The Torch."

"And she's asking permission?"

Clark smiled. "She's not _always_ as tactless as she usually is around you, Lex."

"I guess not." Lex was silent for a long moment, then sighed. "Sure. Why the hell not? Everybody else will have their pieces out tomorrow, anyway."

Clark uncovered the phone. "Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

"It's okay."

"It is? Oh, good. When are you coming home?"

Clark sighed. "Tomorrow."

"And you're just so thrilled about that decision," Chloe dead-panned. He smiled.

"Sorry. It's not you guys..."

"I know. It's just that you don't want to leave Lex." Her tone held a note of something that Clark couldn't place. Maybe... jealousy? Was she jealous of the attention he was giving Lex? "It's okay. I'll see you on Friday then, okay?"

"Yeah. Tell Pete when I'll be home for me?"

"Sure. Bye, Clark."

"Bye, Chloe."

Clark hung up the phone and motioned to hand it back to Lex, who shook his head and lifted one hand to point at the bedside table. Clark put it down, and then looked at his watch. "Thirty-five minutes, Lex. You can try and sit up, if you want."

He nodded. Clark stood and hovered over the bed, not really sure how to help and not wanting to hurt him more. Luckily, Lex was willing to guide him, and reached out for his lover's hand. Placing it on his ribcage, near the bed, he slowly straightened out his legs and then reached for Clark's other hand. Together, they rolled him gently onto his back and propped pillows around the puncture site so that he wasn't leaning on it. Lex winced several times as he moved, but looked much more content when he was sitting up, despite the obvious pain. Sometimes Clark forgot that Lex was nearly as uncomfortable when he displayed any sign of weakness at all as most people were on blind dates.

"You okay?"

Lex nodded. "A little dizzy. I'll live, though."

"Good." He took Lex's hand and kissed it, then settled down in the chair beside the bed. "I brought my backpack with me, so I have my English reading. Is it okay if I read for a while?"

"Sure. What is it?"

Clark rolled his eyes. "Great Expectations. We're doing this Dickens thing in English class, remember how I was reading A Tale of Two Cities? And now this."

"I take it you don't like it much." Lex's voice held a hint of laughter, despite the pain evident in his eyes when Clark looked closely enough.

Clark shrugged. "He's too wordy. Sometimes you just want to tell him to say something and then be done with it, not spend a whole page talking about it."

Lex laughed aloud. "I remember thinking that when I read it in high school, too. But it grew on me." He closed his eyes and took Clark's hand again as the teenager settled down as best as he could, trying to fold his large frame into a plastic chair that wasn't comfortable to start with. "Read it to me." He said, not quite a question and yet not quite a statement.

Clark raised an eyebrow, not sure that he'd heard right. "You want me to read it to you? We're already thirty-five or forty pages in."

Lex shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I've read it twice already."

Clark shrugged. "Okay. Yeah, sure."

They sat there quietly as Clark read from the book, Lex with his eyes closed. Both were thoroughly immersed in the story when the door creaked open and the doctor Clark had dubbed Doctor number one entered the room. She smiled at them, and Clark caught her eye, returned her smile and motioned for her to wait a moment.

Patiently, she listened to his strong, melodious voice finish the passage, and then he put the book down. Lex opened his eyes as soon as Clark stopped reading, and nodded to the doctor when he noticed her in the doorway. "Please, come in." His voice was imperialistic, and Clark had visions of interrupting board meetings, because that was the only other time he'd heard Lex talk like that.

The doctor entered the room, and Clark glanced at her nametag, vowing to actually remember her name. Rachel Devon. So, Doctor Devon. Not quite as distracted now as he had been before, he figured it wouldn't be too hard to remember. Behind her, a nurse followed, pushing a small cart.

"I'd like to take another blood sample," Dr. Devon told Lex, and he nodded without expression. "Then we can finish the tests and get on with figuring out the treatment."

"Certainly, Doctor." It was almost creepy how different Lex sounded around other people, Clark decided. Holding out his arm and rolling up his sleeve, he gave no indication he even really noticed as the nurse tied the tourniquet, swiped the inside of his elbow with an alcohol wipe and pushed in the needle. Clark wondered idly what it felt like. Needles, like everything else, broke when he tried to put them through his skin.

An orderly poked his head in the door. "Doctor Devon? Lionel Luthor is asking for you at the front desk."

Lex rolled his eyes and groaned under his breath, but Clark heard anyway. The doctor looked to him, and he tipped his head, dismissing the orderly before he answered her unspoken question. "Don't tell my father anything. Tell him I'm an adult now, and if he wants to know what's going on, he's going to have to actually come talk to me, as painful as that may be."

The doctor looked a little nervous, but she nodded and disappeared. The nurse pulled the needle from his arm and labeled the tubes of blood and then followed her out. Clark glanced over at Lex, who seemed to have deflated as soon as the medical personnel left.

"Do you want me to go?"

Lex opened his eyes and looked over, elbow bent to keep the cotton-ball on the puncture site. "You mean when my father comes to see me?"

Clark nodded.

Lex shook his head. "You can stay if you like. He's not going to say anything you haven't already heard."

Clark frowned. "I know. I just hate it that he thinks he can be so mean to you, just because you're his son."

Lex laughed humorlessly. "It isn't because I'm his son, Clark. In case you hadn't noticed, he treats everybody that way."

"I guess. But he's really nasty to you."

"As opposed to just underhanded and cruel to the general populace?"

Clark didn't have an answer for that, and Lex sighed. "It's okay, Clark. I promise, I'm used to him."

"I know, and that's part of the problem. You shouldn't have to be. No father should treat his son like that."

Lex smiled sadly, but didn't reply.

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay]


	6. Appetite

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: The rating I've given this chapter seemed a little on the edge to me. So let me know if you think it needs to go up. It probably will in the future, anyway.

Author's Note 2: As you probably have noticed by now, I've decided that this definitely goes AU after 'Insurgence.' So, no parallel to canon after that.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: PG

* * *

Chapter Five - Appetite

1 week earlier:

Clark zipped through the fields on his way to Lex's house. It had become a ritual by now, something that all his friends and parents were acquainted with extremely well. He would go to school, sometimes stay after to work on the Torch with Chloe, but he almost always had time to drop by the castle and check up with Lex. Most of the time he did his homework there so that he could stay later, and then he would go home for dinner. Since he'd already done his homework, he could do his chores after he ate with his family, and in this way get the 'Maximum Life in Minimum Time,' as Chloe called it, having practiced it herself for years.

"Lex!" He called, dropping his backpack unceremoniously by the door. He could come get it when he needed it, and for now, he was tired of carrying it. Though he didn't really feel weight like other people did, he _was_ conscious of it, and it was bound to get annoying after eight hours of school.

"In here, Clark." Not like Clark actually needed to ask. Lex could be found in his study with almost un-erring accuracy during most of the day, and his answer just confirmed what Clark already knew. Picking up his backpack again, he trotted towards the sound of his lover's voice.

The billionaire leaned over his desk to greet Clark with a kiss, something that still sent a thrill through him at its easy casualness. Lex was never all that open emotionally, but he'd let Clark in to a degree that was unparalleled in his life, and the teenager loved how familiar it felt to just have his boyfriend greet him with a kiss like any other pair of lovers.

Clark looked down at the pile of work on the desk and frowned. "Hard day?"

Lex sighed. "Hard week. Hard month. But yes, today is worse than the rest, in terms of the Olympic-sized mound of paper you're looking at."

"What's going on?"

Lex smiled. "LexCorp is gaining followers. It's good, it's just getting busy."

"Do you need to work for a while?"

The billionaire frowned. "I don't want to. You came all the way over here..."

Clark leaned over and kissed him quickly. "Lex. It's okay. I've got homework I can do, and you can read your reports, and we can make fun of stupid things people say." It had become somewhat of a ritual for them, when Lex did work while Clark was over, to make fun of anything they could find that was even mildly amusing. Clark considered it a way to loosen up Lex, and Lex considered it a way to make Clark work his intellect in 'actually useful ways.'

Clark had once inquired why such a skill as finding humor in anything was useful, and Lex had told him that humor was a great tension-breaker, and therefore, if one could find it anywhere they looked, one was always ready to break any tension that might gather between people that didn't know one another. Clark had shook his head and accused Lex of always thinking like a business man, and Lex had questioned why then Clark did it. To which he responded that it was _fun_.

From then on, every time Clark did his homework and Lex worked, they played with the mistakes and unintentional jokes and puns in the reports. Clark liked to make fun of the way that people sucked up to Lex, but Lex needed more work to find that particular aspect of the emails and letters amusing. Not that it mattered to Clark, that just meant he'd have to do more of it until his billionaire boyfriend got the idea of exactly how amusing fifteen 'sir's in four paragraphs was. Especially four paragraphs about the functioning of a crap factory.

They chatted amiably over paperwork for a couple of hours before Lex stretched, yawned and ran his hand over his bald head. "Want a snack?" He asked Clark, aware that the teenager could rarely go more than a few hours before being hungry.

Clark gave him his patented 'Clark-grin' as Lex referred to it, swearing that it was so unique it could be called nothing else, and nodded at the familiar study break. "Yeah. What is it today?"

Lex shrugged. "Dunno. The cook makes whatever she feels like, and leaves it in little boxes so that I don't get confused by my massive kitchen." He grinned. "It wouldn't be all that hard."

Clark shook his head. "Geez, Lex, I know servants are supposed to make things easier for you, but don't you need to know your way around the kitchen in case you want a snack at midnight or something? And what I meant was, you haven't tried today's snack yet?" Usually, Lex would have sampled the snack by this time in the afternoon. Though he ate lightly compared to Clark, his high metabolism was evident and he was a fan of religious exercise as well. Therefore, he'd almost always nibbled on something outside of a meal by five-thirty in the afternoon.

Lex shook his head. "I wasn't hungry. And I don't eat in the middle of the night. It's bad for digestion." Clark didn't question, it wasn't his business. He wasn't going to be a mother-hen to Lex, as much as he wanted to sometimes. Not snacking during the day wouldn't hurt his lover, and besides, now the snack was a surprise.

It turned out that the cook had made them brownies that day, and Clark sat down happily with two huge chunks of the dessert and an enormous glass of milk. Idly, he wondered how much Lex spent on feeding him every afternoon, but decided that wasn't something he was going to feel guilty about. After all, if anyone could afford to keep Clark in food, it was Lex.

Lex took one of the brownies, broke it in half with delicate fingers and sat down next to Clark. He nibbled on the sides occasionally, but mostly just watched his lover eat. Clark didn't complain, he felt like Lex's gaze was devouring him, which was not at all an unpleasant sensation. When Lex broke up the brownie in his hand and fed it to Clark, he didn't complain either. Lex fingers, covered in chocolate and in his mouth... what was there to complain about?

The cook wandered in from wherever she'd been, a moment later, and Clark just glanced over at her before continuing to lave Lex's fingers seductively inside his mouth with a wet tongue. Lex was focused entirely on Clark now, watching his fingers disappear into the hot, wet cavern and then flicking his eyes to see his lover's eyes. They were as close to totally engrossed in each other as an alien with super-senses could be.

Though he was a little uncomfortable doing this in front of the servants and would never have considered it with any of the other help in the room, Clark knew the cook. Lex was always joking about the fact that with how much he ate, he ought to know _more_ cooks, but in reality, the woman was warm and friendly and, well, he did spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen.

She was also the only person that Clark was one-hundred percent sure knew of his and Lex's relationship. Lex's staff was sure and discreet for the most part, and Clark rarely saw them. But he was aware that whoever washed the sheets was getting a good idea of what they did together, as well as anybody who just happened to wandering around the castle at the right time. He'd worried previously about information getting back to Lionel, but Lex had assured him that his staff was well-paid to _not_ report his activities to his father, and he trusted Lex.

When Clark finally decided Lex's fingers were clean enough and released them from his mouth, the cook looked up with a twinkle in her eye. "Hello, Master Clark," she greeted him. "Did you like the brownies?"

As often as Clark tried, he couldn't seem to get Rosa to stop putting 'Master' before his name. Therefore, he'd stopped trying. It was only a waste of energy, he'd deduced before too long. "Yes. Thank you," he told her.

She smiled. "Such a polite boy. Did you manage to get Master Lex to eat any of them?"

Clark grinned and shook his head. "Sorry. Guess you'll have to wait until later for Lex to try them."

Rosa frowned and put her hands on her hips. "Master Lex promised he would eat something later." She directed the comment at the owner of the title, and Lex shrugged. Besides Clark, Rosa was the only one he allowed to fuss over him in any way, and despite the fact that he gave her this privilege, it still clearly made him uncomfortable.

"I wasn't hungry."

"Breakfast alone won't sustain you forever!"

Clark looked over at his lover. "You didn't eat lunch?"

Apparently feeling a little boxed in by his concerned lover and cook, Lex snapped at them. "No. I didn't. And I didn't eat any brownies, and I am _not_ hungry and I am _fine_."

Rosa frowned but turned away, probably knowing once Clark knew about this, her work was done. The soft footfalls of Lex's designer dress shoes reached her ears first, moving quickly in a clipped, angry manner, followed closely by the clomping of Clark's big boots without any of the grace Lex carried. She sighed, and pulled a package of cheese from the bags she'd carried in to start restocking the refrigerator. It was time to let Clark take over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Lex!"

The owner of the name was steadfastly ignoring him.

"Lex, c'mon. I'm just worried about you."

Lex deigned to lift his head and glance at his lover this time, something that was almost always his downfall. Clark's open, honest face was staring up at him from a slouched-over position on the couch, displaying only concern for Lex's well-being. He sighed.

"I'm old enough to decide for myself when I'm hungry, Clark." He was still miffed. He didn't like being coddled at _all_, and Clark wasn't going to get away with it so fast.

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just worried about you," he repeated.

Lex frowned. "Why? It's just a meal."

Clark sat up a little straighter. "No, it's not, Lex. Don't you get it?" He started ticking numbers off on his fingers. "First, you're incredibly tired all the time. Remember when you fell asleep in my lap and were so tired you didn't wake up when I carried you to bed? You always woke up before, Lex. Even when I'd just rescued you and you had a concussion, you woke up if I tried to carry you."

"I don't like to be carried."

Clark snorted. "Yeah. I kind of got that." He ticked off another finger. "Secondly, that paper-cut that bled for like, an hour? Maybe it's connected. In fact, I think more than 'maybe.' And you're pale. I've been ignoring it because you're always pale, but it's more pronounced, now. And then today, you're not hungry."

Lex shrugged. "It's flu season."

"You told me yourself, you don't get sick."

"Well, maybe I do now! I don't know, Clark."

"Please go see your doctor?"

Lex sighed. "I hate doctors."

Clark shrugged. "They're not most people's favorite visits either, I don't think. But maybe he can tell you what's wrong." When Lex didn't respond, he leaned over and kissed the billionaire's forehead quickly. "Please? For me? 'Cause I'm not gonna stop worrying until you do."

Lex conceded that point without argument, knowing it was true. "I'll think about it."

This time, Clark's kiss was on his lips, though equally quick. "Thank you."

When he pulled away, Lex rolled his eyes at his young lover, then stepped out from behind the desk. Grabbing both sides of Clark's head in his hands, he kissed him thoroughly. When they were both gasping for air, he pulled away, leaving their foreheads touching, leaning against each other.

"Think maybe I could try and help you forget for a little while?" He asked, and Clark nodded.

"I'm up for it."

Lex grinned, hearing the double entendre of the sentence. He kissed Clark quickly, and, smirking, drew his answer out long and seductively. "Reaally."

Clark blushed a little and pulled away just a couple of inches. Lex loved how he still did that, still behaved so innocently at times when Lex knew exactly how innocent he _wasn't_. "Lex!"

Lex grinned. "Oh come on, Clark. If you can do it, you should be able to talk about it."

"Maybe later, okay? For now, can you just kiss me?" Those big blue eyes were pleading and full of lust, and that was a combination Lex had long since admitted he was powerless against.

Lex kissed him quickly, then leaned over and started nibbling on Clark's ear. Whispering softly, he made sure to make his breath tickle the inside enticingly, sending a shiver through Clark's body. "Promise? Because you know dirty talk coming from you is one of my favorite fantasies..."

Clark shivered again at his words, and nodded as best as he could with his ear clamped gently between Lex's teeth. "Promise," he whispered.

"Good."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay] [Appetite]


	7. Reality

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: Sap alert! And longer chapter, too! Plus, I know nothing about law, really, so please don't complain about it being unrealistic.

Author's Note 2: As you probably have noticed by now, I've decided that this definitely goes AU after 'Insurgence.' So, no parallel to canon after that.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: PG

* * *

Chapter Six - Reality

"Lex!" Lionel Luthor entered the room with every bit as much presence as Clark remembered before the man was blind, though at a slower pace. "I've heard some unfortunate rumors."

Lex smiled humorlessly, aware that his father couldn't see him. "Oh?"

"Yes. I heard you were _sick_." The way Lionel pronounced the last word was like it was a curse or an abomination. "Luthors don't get sick, Lex."

Lex shrugged. "Apparently this one does. Maybe it has something to do with you driving Mom to drink when she was pregnant with me."

Lionel raised an eyebrow over his dark sunglasses. "Or maybe it has to do with that unfortunate incident in which you lost your hair."

"Possibly. It could just be I got bad genes from you." Lex didn't bother disguising his distaste for his father.

"Well, however it happened, I want you up and out of here and I want you to work through this without a hospital."

Clark glared, almost ready to interrupt, but since Lionel didn't know he was there yet and Lex was sending him little 'keep quiet' looks, he held his tongue.

"I could do that." Clark glanced over at Lex in shock. "But then you wouldn't have an heir pretty quickly, Dad."

Lionel's brow furrowed slightly, but he showed no other sign of emotion. "It's that serious?" He asked without inflection.

Lex was getting pissed, and Clark could tell. He put a calming hand on Lex's forearm silently, hoping it would bring down the younger Luthor's rage. Lex didn't dare shrug him off because it would have alerted his father to Clark's presence, but he glared at the teenager. "I've got cancer, as I'm sure you found out by now, Dad. Did you think it was really something that could be dealt with at home?"

Lionel shrugged. "When you have money-"

"You have options," Lex finished. "Yes, I know. And I will consider going home after the first round of treatment."

"Lex!" Clark couldn't keep quiet anymore.

Lionel swiveled his head swiftly, the eyebrow going up once more. "Mr. Kent? Is that you? What are you doing here?"

"I heard Lex was in the hospital and I came to visit," Clark lied smoothly, something that Lex had always wondered about. Sometimes, Clark could lie with the best of them, fooling even experienced liars like Lex, and sometimes he blushed and stammered and looked down and even a blind man could figure out that he wasn't telling the truth.

"Ah. And why then, were you protesting Lex's plan to return home after his first round of treatments are complete?"

"I said maybe," Lex interrupted, not very happy with either of his visitors at that moment.

Lionel ignored him. "Well, Mr. Kent?"

"Leukemia is serious! He needs to stay where someone can keep an eye on him all the time, and monitor his treatment. It's important, so that he'll get better!"

"And just why is it that you care so much?" Lionel sounded genuinely curious.

Clark was livid, and Lex could see his father back up as Clark advanced on him, even without sight to figure it out. The cloud of anger around his lover was palpable, Lionel didn't need to see to feel it. "I'm his friend. And I don't want to see him die. If you had a heart, you'd care, too."

Lionel, as typical of him, smiled. "Oh. So I don't care if Lex gets better?"

"Not as much as you care about your company and your image!"

Lex had known this from the time that his mother died, when her comforting presence had no longer been able to shield him from the raw truth of how his father felt about him. Still, every time Lionel didn't deny it, it hurt just as badly as the first, and a little something died inside of him.

"Clark," he interrupted. "It's okay."

Clark turned his head to look at Lex, but didn't move. "No, it's not!"

"No," he conceded, "It really isn't. But yelling at Lionel isn't going to help." He thought he saw the tiniest flinch from his father at being referred to by his first name instead of 'Dad', but he figured he'd imagined it. Lionel really didn't have a heart, and he didn't care how Lex felt about him, that had been made clear dozens of times since his mother's death.

Turning to his father, who had a little smirk on his face at Clark being reprimanded, he continued. "Leave."

"Are you speaking to me?" Lionel asked archly.

"Well, Clark is certainly welcome here, and there's no one else in the room, so yes. You."

Lionel considered this for a moment, trying to gauge how serious his son was, and then nodded. "Very well. Don't let this get out of hand, Lex."

Lex didn't answer, just watched as his father left. Then he turned to glare at Clark. "Why did you do that?"

"I couldn't watch him say things like that to you anymore, Lex! I can't believe you could!"

Lex sighed, thought about staying angry, and then decided it wasn't worth it and beckoned Clark closer. "I'm used to it. And it didn't help, you know."

Clark looked a little sheepish. "I know. I'm sorry."

Lex reached out and petted Clark's hair gently before resting his hand on his lover's cheek. "It's okay." Suddenly seeming to get an idea, he took his hand from Clark's head and started digging for his cell phone. 

"Lex?"

"There's someone I need to call, right away."

Clark didn't question, just reached behind him on the bed and pulled out the phone.

"Thanks."

Lex punched numbers into the phone and Clark sat back in his plastic chair, curious but not about to ask. The run-in with Lionel had been unpleasant enough, he didn't want to pry into Lex's personal business. But that didn't mean he was going to offer to leave. If Lex wanted him to, he'd tell him.

As it turned out, the call was short and Clark couldn't decipher anything from Lex's side of the conversation. He merely asked someone to meet him at the hospital immediately and bring some papers of some kind.

When he hung up the phone, Clark's curiosity could wait no longer. "What was that about?" He asked.

Lex smiled. "You'll see."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to have someone coming to see you right now? It's getting late and you need to rest."

"This is important."

"So important it couldn't wait ten hours for tomorrow morning?"

"Yes." Lex was determined and also clearly planning not to give another inch, so Clark dropped it. Lex, when sure of what he wanted, was a force to be reckoned with, and Clark didn't want to stress out his ill lover additionally, either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About forty-five minutes later, an almost-bald man carrying a briefcase rapped quickly on the door and entered. Lex smiled, and greeted him pleasantly. "Mason. Good to see you."

Mason looked serious. "Are you sure this is a good time to be doing this, Mr. Luthor?"

"What better time? I mean, now is when it might actually get used, right?"

"Yes, sir."

Lex shook his head and rolled his eyes again. "Lex. Not Mr. Luthor, or sir. Just Lex."

"Thank you."

Reaching over, Lex put his hand and the attention of Mason on Clark. "This is Clark Kent. I want him to be my trustee."

Mason's eyes appraised him quickly. "Is Mr. Kent old enough?" He asked, and Clark just knew he was sitting there with an incredibly confused expression plastered on his face. He had absolutely no idea what this was about, though, so he figured he was allowed.

"He's sixteen. Can you work with that?"

Mason shook his head. "I can try. You'll need a back-up, though, if your father decides to challenge it and wins."

"Certainly."

"Alright, then. I guess you know the drill."

Lex took the paper and looked it over. He'd done this once before, but the trustee he'd assigned was his father, since at the time, there had been no one else who would have taken the position. "It looks good, Mason. I need witnesses, right?"

The man nodded. Lex reached over and rung the bell by the side of his bed, then waited for a moment. In the door, two nurses appeared, and Lex smiled, turning on the charm full-blast. "Hello, ladies. I'm changing my living will, and I need two witnesses. Could I possibly convince you to help out?"

The nurses looked at each other for a moment, and then turned back to Lex and nodded. "Great," he told them. "Just watch and listen for a minute, and then sign something that says you heard Mr. Kendellman here explain it all to me, alright?" Again, they nodded, and then leaned back against the wall, watching and waiting.

Mason, who apparently was also Mr. Kendallman, took the paper from Lex and wrote his name on the top. "And the name of your first choice trustee, last name first and spelled out?" He asked.

"Kent, Clark. K-E-N-T, C-L-A-R-K."

Mr. Kendallman wrote it out, and nodded to Lex, then showed him the paper. "Is this correct?"

Lex nodded, and they lawyer continued. "Please name your second choice trustee in the same manner."

"Kent, Martha. K-E-N-T, M-A-R-T-H-A."

Clark raised his eyebrow in surprise. His mother? Then he remembered exactly how people treated Lex in Smallville, and all of a sudden, he wasn't so surprised. He and his mother had really been the only two people to treat Lex like a real person since he'd moved in, even if she'd been a little more reluctant than he.

"Okay, Mr. Luthor. Please sign here."

Lex took the pen and quickly signed the paper. Then he handed the clipboard and pen to the nurses, who, one at a time, glanced down the piece of paper and signed below Lex's name.

"Thank you, all," Lex told Mr. Kendallman and the nurses, graciously dismissing them. "I appreciate your help."

Once they'd left the room, Clark turned to his lover, confusion shining in his eyes. "What was that about, Lex?" He asked, not upset but wanting to know what was going on.

"That, was about not letting my father ruin my life if this comes down to it."

"Lex, I don't speak cryptic. Can you explain in English?"

Lex sighed. "It's a living will. Should I ever be judged incompetent to make decisions, medical or otherwise, for myself, the power to do so usually goes to the closest family. But, because I signed that will, that power now goes to you. However, Lionel may fight that, so I chose to put your mother as second choice. Hopefully, that will mean that he won't complain, because either way, he can't win."

"Lex, you're not going to need it."

Lex smiled ruefully. "I've learned a lot under my father's tutelage, mostly things I wish I _hadn't_ learned. But I did learn to always be prepared for anything, and I don't want him having that kind of control. I know you. I know you'll do the best thing for everyone, and if you can, what I would want. My father may only do the best thing for him."

"It won't come down to that will, Lex." 

Clark was apparently bound and determined to live in what Lex considered a fantasy world, so he sighed, and nodded. "Okay."

They were silent for a few long moments, and then Lex nodded towards the backpack on the floor. "Did you get your homework done?" He asked.

Clark shook his head. "No. It's okay though. It's late. You should go to sleep, get some rest."

"Lie down with me?"

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

Lex shrugged, trying to feign indifference. "You don't have to. But I'm pretty sure that all the medical personnel are already aware that we're a couple."

Clark blushed a little as he thought of how they'd behaved earlier in the day, despite their close proximity to the doctors and nurses. "Yeah, I guess so. Sure." He kicked off his shoes and climbed carefully onto the bed, laying down next to Lex. The billionaire then scooted as close as he could to Clark and nestled his head firmly on his lover's chest. 

"Alright?" He asked.

Clark sighed happily. "Better than alright. Get some sleep, okay?"

Lex nodded as best as he could, which really amounted to him wiggling his head on Clark's chest and getting the t-shirt bunched beneath his head. "Okay."

Clark laughed lightly, straightened out his shirt and petted Lex's head quickly before taking a deep breath and lying back to go to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was nearly seven o'clock when Clark woke, despite both the strange bed and having grown up on a farm. He was pretty sure that the reason he awoke so early every morning at home, alarm or not, was because of the farm noises, and this pretty much proved as much.

Sleeping had always been something Clark was good at. Hours and hours of it, in whatever bed, couch or occasionally even floor he was offered. Apparently, that didn't change just because he was in a hospital, or waking up from actual slumber with his boyfriend for the first time. There was sleeping together, and there was actual _sleeping together,_ complete with snoring, and Clark had always regretted that they'd never had time for the latter.

Lex was already awake on the other side of the bed, his laptop propped up on pillows, typing hurriedly. "'Morning," he greeted Clark, looking up just enough to flash him a quick smile full of anxiety.

Clark yawned, rolled over and wrapped his arms around Lex's chest. "'Morning," He returned. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

Lex shook his head. "Not really. I fell asleep with you, but then I woke up. I needed to get this done anyway."

Clark thought about protesting, telling Lex that his body needed sleep to heal, but Lex already knew that, and if the anxiety he was letting show, which in itself was a rare occurrence, was anything to go by, his lover hadn't had any real say in whether he slept the night before or not.

"Okay. Promise you'll sleep later, if you're tired, though? The whatever-it-is you're doing can wait."

Lex looked up from the keyboard for a split second. "Yeah. Okay." He spoke distractedly, and Clark knew he wasn't entirely aware of what was coming out of his mouth.

From anyone else, he figured, it would have been an insult, but coming from Lex, it was a compliment. It meant he felt comfortable enough to leave his guard down and not pay attention to every little word he said or action he made in Clark's presence. Clark had seen Lex work business partners, and he knew that his lover's attention was usually razor-sharp and super-focused, being mindful every single second of everything he said, always careful not to put a foot wrong.

"Do we get breakfast in this joint?" Clark asked, hoping to draw Lex out a little, and sure enough, the billionaire looked predictably up and smiled slightly.

"Do you ever eat enough to not be hungry for a full eight hours or so?" He asked.

Clark shook his head. "Nope. But it's been eight hours and five minutes, anyway, so no matter what you say, it's time to eat."

Lex smiled a little, and nodded to the bell. "Go ahead. You're Lex Luthor's boyfriend, they'll get you anything you want."

Clark caught the slightly bitter tone in his lover's voice, and stopped his hand just short of the bell. "Lex?"

"Huh?"

"Do... do you mind... that people are going to know about us, now?" He hated to think about it, but it _was_ all too possible he was Lex's dirty little secret. A billionaire heir to one of the largest corporations in America, and a farmboy whose total net worth was something like fifteen dollars. The news of their relationship wasn't exactly going to be gobbled up enthusiastically by the general public.

"What? No!" Lex actually closed his laptop, and met Clark's eyes. "No. I promise, I'm not ashamed of us. I'm just... worried. Your parents, my father... He already suspects, but he doesn't know for sure. Your friends. Your life is about to change dramatically, and probably not for the better, Clark."

"I know."

Lex cracked a smile without any amusement. "See, that is what makes me think you can handle it. All mature and calm and ready to face the world, and sometimes I forget how young you are."

"Does age really only have to do with years, Lex?"

Lex shook his head. "Not only. But it does, it really does. I'm not at all the same person now I was six years ago."

Clark smiled, and took Lex's hand. "And in six years, I won't be the same as _I_ am now. But neither will you. Time changes us all, and we can help change each other, now."

"See, that's what I'm worried about." Lex laughed, bitterly.

Clark's face hardened with anger for the people who had made Lex think himself so worthless. "Look at me." He grabbed Lex's chin gently, and tilted his head until he could meet his lover's eyes straight-on. "You are a good person. You may not always know what the best thing to do is, but that isn't what defines good and evil. You _want_ to do the right thing, and that's what makes you a good person."

Lex didn't respond, and Clark knew there was nothing else he could say to make him understand. Lex would have to mull the words over on his own, make sense of them in his own time. For now, Clark just took his lover's hand and squeezed it, then rang the bell for the nurses. "It's time to eat," he explained with a smile.

"Okay."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay] [Appetite] [Reality]


	8. Fine

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, RL intruded. I do intend to keep this going at an update at least every 5-7 days, but there are never any guarantees. 

Author's Note 2: As you probably have noticed by now, I've decided that this definitely goes AU after 'Insurgence.' So, no parallel to canon after that.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: PG

* * *

Chapter Seven - Fine

5 days earlier:

"C'mon, Lex, please? I'm worried about you."

Lex glanced up from his computer screen, trying for an indifferent look and really getting a distracted one. "Why?"

"Why?! Lex, you fall asleep at the drop of a hat, you bruise a million times easier than you used to, and now you're not eating!"

Lex gestured to the side of the desk. "I ate."

"One pear! It's three in the afternoon, and that's all you've eaten since this time yesterday!"

Lex sighed, closed his laptop and folded his hands on his lap, giving his attention to Clark. "I promise I'm fine. There's a lot going on right now, and I need to concentrate on business. It's been making me neglect sleep and food for a while. I'll start paying more attention to my health, though, you have my word."

Clark wasn't convinced. "Why do you bruise so easily, now, Lex? The other day I grabbed your wrist as you were heading out the door, and you had a circle of purple fingerprints for three days! I didn't grab you that hard."

Lex shrugged. "Maybe you did."

Clark knew more about the use of his strength than any other person on the planet, he was pretty sure. He _had_ to know that much, if he was to know how to control it, lethal as it had the capability of being. He was a dangerous weapon, he had to know all of his limits perfectly, and he was satisfied that he did. "I don't think so."

"Really, I appreciate your concern, but it isn't necessary." Clark could hear Lex shutting down, pulling himself away as he spoke, his face becoming a blank mask, the same one he used during business dealings.

Sighing, the teenager sat down on the edge of his lover's desk and tried a different tact. "Just see your doctor? He can run a couple of tests, take some blood, make sure nothing's wrong and then you can tell me I told you so, okay?"

"I don't need to see a doctor."

"Maybe you don't. But I'm worried, and I won't stop _being_ worried until I know I have nothing to worry about."

Lex looked up to meet Clark's eyes, and gave a wry little laugh. "No, I guess you won't. That just wouldn't be like you, would it?"

Clark smiled, things starting to look up for his cause. "Nope."

"That was a rhetorical question."

"I know." He let his tone drift faintly towards saucy.

There was a long pause where Lex didn't agree, but hadn't argued, yet. Then he spoke again.

"Maybe I just have the flu. In fact, I probably just have the flu, if I've even got anything."

"Then your doctor can tell you that." Clark wasn't backing off one centimeter. He was tired of lying awake at night wondering if Lex was okay.

Lex sighed. "Okay. But I can't fit him in for a few days, probably not until Tuesday, so do you promise to get off my back until the appointment?"

Clark nodded, and then leaned over to kiss his boyfriend quickly. "I promise." He grinned. "Now, can we get something to eat and just veg out in front of the television? It's a Friday afternoon, Lex, and you need food and rest, no matter what the cause of your exhaustion is."

"I'm not exhausted."

Clark cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? And the bags under your eyes and the fact that you were staring at the same screen for five minutes before you even noticed me is just, what? A fashion statement and a new fad?" He smiled to take the bite out of his statement.

Lex cocked an eyebrow back at him. "Yes, actually."

Clark laughed at his lover's total deadpan delivery. "I think you've got a future in acting, Lex."

He shrugged. "Maybe. Don't think anything will ever come of it, though. Lionel has to die someday, and then I've got to be around to inherit my billions."

Feeling vaguely alarmed that he wanted 'someday' to be as soon as possible, Clark abruptly pushed all thoughts of Lex's father into the back of his head and replied distractedly. "Guess so. _Now, _can we have food and rest and bad movies?"

Lex nodded and smiled. "You'll have to see if I own any bad movies," he teased lightly.

"Oh, because your taste is so impeccable."

The billionaire raised his eyebrow again, something that sometimes seemed like the only expression he made, and was certainly the only expression he made on a regular basis, and glanced up from reading something on his desk. "'Impeccable.' Nice SAT word, Clark."

"SAT's aren't 'til next year."

Lex shrugged. "So, you're getting a head start. Don't tell me you didn't learn that in preparation for some test or another." He seemed to be daring Clark to defy his statement.

The teenager shifted his weight where he was sitting on the desk, and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. For the SAT's I mean. My English teacher makes a list of words he thinks might be on the SAT next year and hands it out to all the sophomores. I've been studying it." He looked almost embarrassed to admit it, and Lex realized that it was an instinctive reaction coming from being used to hanging out with his own age group. Instead of being impressed, like Lex was, most teenagers would have used this tidbit of information to brand his lover a geek.

"Well, good for you." Lex flipped open his laptop again and scrolled his cursor over to yet another file marked 'urgent' that he hadn't gotten around to reading yet. "I've got to finish something up, but you can get us some food and pick a DVD. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Okay." Clark stood from the corner of the desk, picked up his backpack and bounded out of the room, his nervous energy having somewhat abated since Lex had agreed to see the doctor, but not enough so that he didn't still have extra to burn.

Lex's servants had the day off because Lionel was in Metropolis and the younger Luthor had wanted to savor the peace and quiet of his free day alone, or possibly (hopefully) with Clark. Lex never really knew if Clark would be free, chores on the farm were sometimes unpredictable, but he always hoped the teenager would drop in. He had gone out of his way to make sure Clark knew he was always welcome at the castle, and he wanted to see him!

Going to the refrigerator, Clark poked through all of the gourmet foods that Lex kept until he recognized sandwiches, wrapped in plastic wrap, obviously waiting for him and Lex, or perhaps just Lex, on the top shelf. Knowing the way Lex had been eating recently, he thought that they might be a day or two old, but Clark wasn't picky, and hopefully his lover wasn't in one of his finicky moods today, either.

Grabbing them and a couple of plates, Clark quickly x-rayed the cabinets in search of chips, which he found within a minute. Piling everything on top of each other, he headed for the 'entertainment room', where he knew Lex kept drinks in a mini refrigerator, so that he wouldn't have the make the trek from the front of the house to the back every time he got thirsty.

Setting everything down, Clark put two sandwiches on his plate and one on Lex's. He didn't really expect his lover to eat that much, given how appetite-less he'd been for the past few days, but he could hope. The chips he opened and stuck in the middle cushion of the couch, and then he wandered over to the fridge.

Lex never seemed to drink anything but coffee and bottled water, so he grabbed a cold water bottle and placed it by Lex's single sandwich. For himself, he dug deep into the back of the tiny refrigerator and pulled out a coke can. Then he walked to the door and called for his lover.

"Lex!"

Lex's answering voice was faint, from another wing of the first floor. "Yes?!"

"I've got the food ready! Are you coming?"

There was some electronic clicking and then the unmistakable sound of a laptop closing, and Lex's chair creaking as he stood up. "Yeah! Pick out the movie, okay? I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay!"

Setting the drinks down on coasters Clark knew Lex kept under the paper in his drawers by the couch, he headed over to a what looked like a large, flat cabinet. Opening it, he started to look through the hundreds of DVDs that were lined up, spines facing outwards, in the custom-made storage case.

Lex's soft footsteps sounded in the hall, and when they stopped, Clark turned around to see his lover plop himself exhaustedly on the couch and reach for his water. Well, at least he probably wasn't getting dehydrated, then, Clark thought, and immediately felt like a mother hen. 

"Hey, what do you want to see?" He asked, trying to take his mind from concerned-hovering-boyfriend mode, for Lex's sake.

Lex shrugged. "Surprise me."

"Do you just want to pick a genre, then?"

"Less than thirty years old."

Clark turned to look at him. "That's not a genre."

Lex cracked a little bit of a smile. "No, but it's the only stipulation I'm putting on our movie-watching today, so enjoy it."

Reluctantly, Clark turned back to the shelves. He wasn't ever really sure what Lex liked to watch, except old movies, but apparently he wasn't even in the mood for those today. Quickly, his eyes skimmed the spines, looking for something he knew he wanted to see, or had supposed to have been good...

Action... no, he didn't really think that the slumped-over boyfriend with bags under his eyes waiting for him on the couch was probably in the mood for action. Comedy, then? Naw, _he_ wasn't in the mood. Well, then they were stuck with something serious. What kind of thing did he want to see that lived in the 'drama' section of Smallville's only video store?

A light blue case caught his eye, and he read the title quickly. In French. But there was an English title below it: 'Come Undone.' Intrigued, he pulled it out and started to read the case.

Gay teenagers discovering themselves on the beach in France. Well, it couldn't be that bad, and if he owned it, that meant that Lex had at least, at some point, wanted to see it, right?

Hoping it wouldn't bore either him or Lex to death, Clark slid the disk into the DVD player below the huge flat-screen TV and settled back to munch on chips and sandwich.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two and a half hours later, as the movie was winding down, Clark took his eyes off the screen and met Lex's sleepy, baby blue ones. His lover had migrated from sitting next to him at the beginning of the movie, to leaning on him a little ways in, and then Clark had moved to curl up on the couch, and Lex had been leaning on him... however it had happened, the teenager was now semi-propped up in the corner of the couch, with his lover splayed across him.

"Comfortable?" He asked, slightly joking.

Lex closed his eyes and hummed. "Very."

"Want to get some rest?"

His lover opened his eyes again. "What time do you have to be home?"

Clark shrugged. "Curfew's at midnight on the weekend, so not until then, I guess."

Lex glanced at his watch. "It's six-thirty already."

The teenager rolled his eyes. "So we'll only get like, five hours of sleep, Lex. I think that's probably more than you've been getting in a night."

Lex didn't deny it, and Clark closed his arms around his lover, pulling him in tight. "Sleep. It'll be good for you."

"I thought you were going to lay off about that."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "Did I say something I wasn't supposed to? You admitted you weren't getting enough sleep. That's all I commented on."

Lex rolled his eyes. "Okay, smart-ass, I guess I could use some sleep." He squirmed slightly on top of his lover and sighed contentedly. "And you're a mighty good pillow."

"Glad to be of service."

Lex cocked one eye open, in a playful mood apparently, despite his exhaustion. "No, that's what you are when I'm not so incredibly sleepy."

Clark grinned back. "Well, then, get some sleep so I can be of service again later, when you won't fall asleep before you're half-undressed."

Lex yawned. "I should defend myself from that accusation."

"I notice you're not, though."

He shook his head. "Nope. Sometimes, sleep is more important than sex."

Clark pretended to gasp. "Lex! I didn't think _anything_ was more important than sex!"

Meeting his eye, Lex countered. "If you hadn't eaten in two days and you were offered sex or food, which one would you take?"

A twinkle in his eye, Clark answered instantly and with a grin. "Food."

"I rest my case."

Smiling, Clark ran a hand over Lex's bald head and then gently down his cheek, leaving it there for a moment as his lover nuzzled into his palm, eyes closed and already halfway to asleep.

A moment later, something seemed to come to him, and he forced his eyes open. "Can you reach the remote?" He asked sleepily.

Clark nodded. "Yeah. Sleep, Lex."

"'Kay..."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay] [Appetite] [Reality] [Fine]


	9. Know

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: I know, it's been a god-awfully long time since I've updated this. I'm sorry. My muses weren't cooperating until tonight, when I wrote the whole thing, so please forgive me!

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: G

* * *

Chapter Eight - Know

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Clark shoveled food in his mouth as usual, and Lex watched him with tolerant amusement between dainty little bites of his own meal, which Clark made sure he at least nibbled on. 

After breakfast, there was more blood-taking, and then a nurse showed up to give them a tour of the oncology wing. She showed them to the 'fun room', which, as far as Clark could tell, was a big boring room with some board games and videotapes the patients could rent when they got tired of broadcast TV. After that, they saw the nurses station, which was a large round desk at the intersection of four hallways. Then she showed them the elevator, and how to get to the room, which the doctors always recommended when patients wanted some air, apparently, because contagious patients were never allowed on it, and the immune-deficient cancer patients wouldn't have to fear their germs.

They were resting quietly in Lex's room again, the billionaire doing who-knew-what with his company, via his laptop, and Clark carefully filling out his homework papers for Trig class. "Ah, fuck!" He swore, abruptly.

"What?" Lex asked mildly, looking up from his computer for the first time in hours.

Clark blushed a little at having uttered obscenities in front of some one else, but ignored his obvious discomfort in favor of answering his lover. "My calculator just broke."

"As in, ran out of batteries, or actually broke?" Lex asked.

"Actually broke. It eats batteries, I've been replacing them like every other week. But these are new ones, I just put them in two days ago!"

Lex reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Clark looked puzzled for a minute, then shook his head vehemently. "No, Lex."

Lex pulled out a credit card and pressed it into his hand. "You and your parents can pay me back if you really feel you need to. But you need that calculator for your homework, which I won't have you slacking on just because you insist on being here with me."

Clark looked uncertain for a long moment, then nodded. "Okay. But I will pay you back."

"If you must." Lex's tone was noncommittal.

"I will." He stood and grabbed the broken calculator. "I'll be back in an hour or two, okay?"

Lex nodded. "Get some real food while you're out?"

He nodded. "Sure. What do you want?"

"Pizza."

Clark laughed. "Pizza? You don't ever eat pizza."

Lex shrugged. "Blame it on the drugs. I feel like pizza."

Clark became instantly serious. "Drugs? What drugs?"

"The chemo drugs. They started them this morning, while you were asleep." Lex sounded as though he thought it was just a casual thing to mention, and Clark's temper skyrocketed. Clamping down firmly, reminding himself that Lex was just scared and he pulled in on himself when he was scared, the teenager carefully schooled his tone before he spoke.

"And you were what? Just not going to tell me?"

Lex looked up, his blue eyes impassive. "I just told you."

Clark shook his head in frustration. "Lex, I'm here so that I can be your support. I need to know what's going on so that I can do that!"

"I told you, I'm telling you now."

The teenager shook his head again, and sighed. "Okay. Fine. What do you want on your pizza?"

"Olives. Pepperoni. Pineapple."

Clark made a face. "Gah. Sounds wonderful."

Lex looked up, and despite the obvious exhaustion on his face, his eyes twinkled in amusement. "Clark. Is that sarcasm I detect? I'll have you know that those three things make a very good pizza."

"Yeah. Maybe when you're high." He wrinkled his nose.

"Where'd you learn that?" Lex actually looked genuinely curious, for some reason, so Clark answered him without hesitation.

"Some of the football players. I've seen them eat everything from tuna straight from the can to three-day old unrefrigerated Hawaiian pizza when they smoke weed."

Lex shrugged. "Well, I guess chemotherapy drugs make you feel the same way."

Clark wrinkled his nose again. "You are going to keep it down better than them, aren't you?"

Lex grinned. "I promise I won't barf on you just yet, Clark."

Clark went serious, reminded what Lex was likely to be enduring any day now. "It's not that you can't barf on me. I promise I'll stick around, even when you get sick." He waited for Lex to make eye contact with him, and tried to convey his seriousness through his gaze. "But I don't want that particular disgusting concoction on me, partially digested or not!"

Lex grinned again. "Okay. Promise I won't eat anything really gross when I'm nauseous. Good enough?"

Clark nodded. "Yep. Be back in a few hours, then. And Lex?"

He looked up from his computer, where his gaze seemed to return every time Clark looked away. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Clark returned with a brand new calculator and a disgusting pizza for his lover, he found Lex asleep. Not wanting to disturb him, he settled carefully into the uncomfortable plastic chair, opened his binder as quietly as he could and went back to cursing whoever had created Trig in the first place.

Lex slept for a couple of solid hours before he started stir, and Clark had mixed feelings about that. On one hand, Lex tended to be habitually sleep-deprived and needed every bit he could get, as well as it being good fuel for his body to fight the cancer and chemotherapy drugs, but on the other hand, it was so incredibly out of character for Lex that it made him worry more.

Clark put down his paper and pencil when Lex rolled over, groaning softly. He watched as his lover became gradually more active in his sleep, then opened his eyes slowly a few minutes later. "Clark?"

Clark nodded. "I'm here."

"What time is it?"

Clark glanced down at his watch. "Three-thirty-seven."

Lex rolled his eyes. "Thank you, Mr. Precise."

Clark grinned. "You asked what time it was! I would have been in error of my watch-reading duties if I had told you it was three-forty, or something."

"Next time, feel free to round."

Clark pouted. "You would have answered the same way."

Lex grinned, but for that had no answer, and they sat in silence for a few moments as Lex's mind caught up with his body in wakefulness. Eventually, he sat up and looked over at Clark, and his lover spoke again.

"How are you feeling?"

"A little queasy," Lex admitted. "But I'm hungry."

Clark reached under his chair and pulled out the pizza box. "I got what you wanted, but I think it's pretty cold by now."

Lex looked into the corner of the room oddly for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something. Clark's face twisted into a puzzled expression while he awaited what Lex would say.

Lex seemed to decide suddenly, and turned to meet Clark's eyes, a determined spark in his own gray ones. "Well then, warm it up."

Clark looked over at his lover incredulously. Lex sighed, and rolled his eyes. "I know you have some kind of heat vision. I'm not blind." He smiled reassuringly. "I promise I won't ask, Clark."

Clark sat back in his chair, his body trembling at this knowledge. He trusted Lex, it wasn't that he didn't, but it was so hard to tell anybody after it had been drilled into him his entire life that this was secret. "Wh-what else do you know?" He whispered.

Lex looked concerned. "You're strong, and fast, and allergic to the meteors." He obviously noticed that Clark was starting to move from 'worried' into 'panicked' pretty quickly, especially at the mention of his weakness around meteors, because he sat up and put a hand on his lover's shoulder.

"Clark."

Reluctantly, the teen turned his head to meet Lex's eyes.

"I won't tell anyone. I promise, I won't exploit you, Clark. You're all I have." He paused, his voice thick with emotion. "And even if you weren't, I wouldn't do that to you. I don't want to turn into my father."

Clark nodded shakily, just then noticing the hurt in Lex's eyes. Hurt... that Clark didn't appear to trust him. Hurt that he'd been lying to Lex their entire relationship. "I'm sorry," he offered. "I didn't know how to tell you. I... was scared." The hurt in Lex's eyes intensified, and Clark hurried to continue.

"I was scared, Lex, but it wasn't because I thought you'd hurt me. It's just... been drilled into me for such a really long time that it's incredibly scary to think about anyone knowing it."

Lex nodded slowly. "So nobody else knows?"

Clark shook his head. "My parents. And Pete. He kind of figured it out, like you, but unlike you, he didn't have the patience to wait."

"So you had to tell him. Or lose him?"

Clark nodded, then looked at the floor. "If you push me, I will tell you, Lex. I don't want to, but I don't want to lose you even more. But I'm begging you, please don't do that." He looked up, pleading blue eyes locking with Lex's strong gray ones. "Please don't make me reveal myself before I'm ready."

Slowly, Lex nodded. "Okay, Clark."

A little surprised, Clark knew it probably showed on his face, but he smiled shakily in return. "Thanks."

Patting the bed beside him, Lex motioned him nearer. "C'mon. The bed's more comfortable than that god-awful chair, isn't it?"

Clark's smile was still shaky, but it was slowly gaining strength. "Yeah."

"Well, then there's no reason for you to be over there when there's plenty of room in here."

The patented Clark-grin was back, as Lex's teenage lover crawled under the covers and hugged him to his chest. "Thanks."

Lex wasn't sure if they were talking about Clark's secrets or the bed, but either way, there was only one answer.

"You're welcome."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was six-twenty when Clark kissed Lex's temple and picked up his stuff, starting to put it all back in his backpack. "I've got to go," He explained. "Mom and Dad were pretty adamant I be home by seven."

Lex's eyes narrowed, and Clark knew he was just dying to ask exactly how fast Clark _was_, but he managed to rein himself in. Instead, he stroked a hand over Clark's thick black hair and nodded. "Yeah. You'd better go, then."

"I'll be back on Saturday."

Lex narrowed his eyes for an entirely different reason this time. "I don't want you causing conflict with your parents over me, Clark."

Clark sighed, rolled his eyes, and kissed Lex softly and quickly. "I'll be back on Saturday," he reiterated. "And I'll call you tomorrow."

It was Lex's turn to roll his eyes now, and he did so. "Okay, okay." Smiling, he watched as Clark picked up his backpack from the floor and swung it over a shoulder. "I get it. It's pointless to argue with you."

Clark grinned. "Damn right it is."

"God, Kents are stubborn."

"And you love it."

Lex grinned back, and repeated Clark's phrase. "Damn right I do."

Clark just had to get in a parting shot. "'Sides, it's not like you can argue Luthors don't have a major stubborn streak too."

Lex shrugged. "Guess not."

"Bye, Lex."

"Bye, Clark."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most of the time it took Clark to get back to Smallville was eaten up winding through the populated parts of Metropolis at a quick jog rather than his top speed.It was annoying that when he knew he could move quicker than a bullet, he still had to leave half an hour early so that no one would see him do so, but he never once questioned the necessity of it.

When the Kent farmhouse came into sight, Clark slowed, leaving ruts in the ground that always happened if he stopped too quickly. "Damn," He mumbled under his breath, and walked back over the ruts, stamping them out until they were no longer noticeable, just another piece of uneven dirt.

Martha greeted his warmly with a hug and hurried him into the kitchen when he pushed open the door. Jonathan was in less of a welcoming mood, but nonetheless managed to nod and not say anything disparaging about Luthors right off the bat. 

"So, how is Lex?" Martha asked, her back to her husband and son as she fixed something over the stove.

Clark was entirely willing to just avoid the entire subject of his lover, if it would keep his father off his back, but his mother obviously wanted an answer. "Shaken up. Nervous. And with a weird craving for pineapple-olive-pepperoni pizza when I last saw him."

Jonathan looked incredulous. "Pineapple-olive-pepperoni pizza?" He asked.

Clark shrugged. "He said it was the drugs."

"Drugs?" His father's voice was instantly sharp.

"The chemotherapy drugs, Dad."

Jonathan looked appropriately chagrined, and Clark decided to let him off the hook for the moment.

"So, did Chloe bring my homework by?"

Martha nodded. "It's on your desk." She hesitated for a moment. "I think you need to talk to her, Clark."

Clark frowned. "Why?" He was planning to talk to her, of course, but not in the serious, resolving-issues way that his mother was implying would be necessary.

"She seemed kind of down when she came here. It might not, but something tells me it has something to do with you and her."

Clark nodded slowly, absorbing this with a frown on his face, trying to figure out what he and Chloe might need to talk about. He knew that she wasn't entirely over him, but he figured they'd left that behind them, now. He wasn't interested, and she was a good enough friend to respect that. For whatever reason though, if she needed someone to lean on, he'd be there.

"Okay. I'll talk to her."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay] [Appetite] [Reality] [Fine] [Know]


	10. Normality

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: I know, it's been a god-awfully long time since I've updated this. I'm sorry. My muses weren't cooperating until tonight, when I wrote the whole thing, so please forgive me! (this the same author's note as on #8, but ironically, true again!)

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: PG-13

* * *

Chapter Nine - Normality

3 days earlier:

The first thing Clark had done when he'd come over was ask Lex if he still had his doctor's appointment-- at which the younger Luthor had rolled his eyes and nodded tolerantly-- but after that, he seemed content to let the subject rest, an idea that Lex was very on board with.

It was Sunday, and though there was work to be done on the farm, as always, Clark had made time to visit his boyfriend. Though still obviously tired, Lex didn't have the same dark circles under his eyes as he had on Friday, so the teenager was willing to let the subject of his lover's ill health take a backseat, in exchange for a much more pleasant visit. 

Standing from behind his desk where he'd been finishing something, Lex gestured vaguely to his right. "Pool?" He asked.

Clark shrugged. "Sure. Play it, or swim in it?"

Lex chuckled. "Both? Play it, first, though."

Clark nodded, and stood out of the way so that Lex could get past the side of his desk and lead them into the den where the pool table was.

Of course, leaning over the pool cues and making lewd comments about the pool balls let one thing lead to another, and pretty soon, they were no longer playing pool as much as... playing with each other.

Afterward, Clark lay on the pool table panting, Lex collapsed over him, sweat gleaming off every surface on both of them. "We probably shouldn't have done that," Clark said, once he got his breath back.

"Why?" Lex lifted his head to meet Clark's eyes for a second, then rested it on his lover's chest again.

"Because you're sick. It can't be good to tire yourself out."

"I thought you were going to stop playing mother hen."

"I never said that."

"I know. But it was implied when you asked about my health, and I glared, and you asked about my doctor's appointment, and I glared more and said '_Clark_,' and then you stopped asking."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize that implied I was going to stop 'playing mother hen.'"

Lex nodded sagely. "It did."

"Oh. Okay." He kissed the top of Lex's head. "We still shouldn't have. Just until your doctor clears you."

Lex sat up, then leaned down and pressed a firm kiss to his lover's lips. "I'm fine. And even if I weren't, that hardly hurt anything. In fact, I'm firmly convinced that sex is good for me, no matter what my health."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "'Sex cures all' is the Lex Luthor-ism for healing?"

"Yes." Lex nodded his head seriously, and Clark laughed, then kissed him quickly one more time.

"I guess it hasn't killed anybody yet."

Lex got a gleam in his eye that told Clark he'd just slipped up and sent his lover into lecture mode. "Actually, an amazing number of people with weak hearts have died during orgasm."

Clark held up a hand as it looked like he was going to continue. "Are you trying to discourage me from having sex with you? Cause it's working."

Lex shook his head firmly, and let a mock-panicked look enter his eyes. "Nope. Not trying to do that. In fact, I'm now sure nobody has ever died while having sex."

Clark laughed again, and then pushed his lover gently upwards. "As much as I'd love to lie here forever, the sweat is drying, and I'm getting cold." Actually, he couldn't feel a thing, but he could see the goosebumps rising all over his lover's hairless arms, and he wasn't about to let him get chilled on top of whatever it was he already had. 

Lex nodded. "Shower?"

"Shower. Then the pool?"

"Sure. What time do you have to get home?"

Clark glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's only two. Not until six, so we have a while."

"Okay."

Clark let Lex run the shower, something he almost always did. The couple of times he'd turned it on for them, at his lover's insistence, Lex had ended up adjusting the water anyway, because he'd left it too cold. As much as cold showers weren't really a thing to look forward to, Clark wasn't going to take the chance that he might accidentally burn his lover. His sense of temperature was acute and very accurate, but he wasn't always sure what was appropriate for humans.

Lex stepped into the shower first and sighed, moving to stand under the stream of hot water for a long moment. Clark entered quickly so that the water from the multiple showerheads wouldn't splash out into the room, and wet himself thoroughly. He knew he was lucky, that most of the time when two people shared a shower, one of them got cold, but Lex was rich enough, and, Clark personally thought, more importantly, _picky_ enough that his shower came from three different directions at once. 

Grabbing the soap bar, Clark lathered his hands and started to run them over Lex's bare chest, moving slowly, almost lazily. Eyes closed, Lex reached out for the soap, which Clark willingly put in his hand, and then started to duplicate the movements of Clark's hands on his lover's chest. His eyes never opened and he held his head slightly tilted back, still enjoying the warmth of the water.

Clark made a mental note to keep an eye on Lex more closely. No matter what it was that was wrong with him, he was obviously sick, and couldn't afford to get this cold. Because, by the way his lover was basking in the heat of the shower, he'd clearly gotten more than a little chilled.

Finally opening his eyes and moving a little, Lex reached for the bottle of shampoo he now kept in the shower, and squeezed some into his hands. Reaching up, he motioned Clark to turn around, and started to lather his head. Normally, Clark wouldn't let him do this, fearing his parents would ask why he smelled like the shampoo that clearly wasn't their brand, but today they were going swimming anyway, and the chlorine smell would overpower the shampoo long before he got home.

Lex's strong fingers massaged the shampoo deep into the thickest parts of Clark's hair, and kept working, kneading with just the right amount of pressure on Clark's scalp. Tilting his head even further back in pleasure, Clark let out a low groan. Lex chuckled.

"Like that?"

"Like it? It's heaven."

All too soon, Lex's hands disappeared, and Clark opened his eyes to protest. "What? Don't stop!"

Lex grinned at him, shaking his hands near his waist. "Sorry. My hands were starting to fall asleep from holding them over my head. We can do it more some other time, when you're sitting down so they don't fall asleep."

"Oh. Okay." Reluctantly, the teenager tilted his head back into one of the streams of water and let it rinse all the shampoo from his thick mop of hair. Quickly, he ran both hands through the water and then over his forehead, making sure there wasn't any soap stuck at his hairline. "Done?" He asked, then.

Lex nodded. "Yep." Leaning down, he turned off the water and opened the shower door to grab two towels. Handing one to Clark, he quickly scrubbed down his upper torso with the other and then wrapped it securely around his waist.

"Still feel like swimming?"

Clark shrugged. "Actually, I feel kind of waterlogged. We could play chess or something, and then go for a swim. There's still a lot of time before I have to be home."

Lex nodded. "Sounds good." He grabbed his pants and pulled them on under the towel, not really trying to keep anything covered, just trying to take the towel off and put the slacks on at the same time. Clark pulled his jeans on only after ripping the towel off-- he was sure that if he tried to imitate Lex, he'd do something embarrassing like catch the towel in the zipper of the jeans and get it stuck.

Throwing on a shirt, Lex led the way out of the bedroom. "Chess?" He asked.

"Yeah. I... don't actually know how to play. I thought maybe you could help me with that."

Lex stopped and turned around. "You don't know how to play chess?" He asked, incredulous.

"It isn't exactly on the list of things farmboys need to know, Lex," Clark responded as he followed his lover down the stairs. "In fact, I think it might be on the list of things that take up time being useless while said farmboys could be doing their chores."

"Clark, chess is strategy game. It develops the mind and strengthens skills that are integral for things like math and other higher reasoning." Lex sounded almost appalled that anyone could think chess was useless.

"And you can't figure out why it isn't high on the list of things that future farmers need to learn?"

"You're not a future farmer, Clark. Not unless you want to be. Because I know how that mind of yours works, and it has the potential to do a lot more than grow corn."

Clark ducked his head, not really sure how to respond. Luckily, Lex seemed to get the idea, and headed into the corner of the room to get the chess set. Putting it down on the little table that he kept for entertaining guests, he nodded to Clark to take a seat. "Ever played checkers?"

Clark nodded, watching as Lex put together the board in a pattern he didn't recognize. "Yeah."

"Same board. That'll help a little."

"Okay."

Satisfied with his setup, Lex pushed the box aside and started pointing to figures. "Alright. So, this is the queen, and this is the king. This is a rook, and knight...."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour later, Clark had his head in his hands and was staring fiercely at the board, utterly clueless at what he should be doing. Reluctantly, he moved a piece, and then saw Lex countermove and wipe his piece off the board. "Ugh!"

Lex smiled. "Ready to stop?" He asked.

Clark nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I could use a swim now, too."

"Okay. Let me put this away. You can go change, if you want."

Clark nodded again. "Meet you at the pool?"

"Yeah."

In the usual place in Lex's dresser drawer, Clark found the pair of swim trunks he'd left over there. Stripping down, he pulled them on and headed for the pool, knowing that there would be towels ready down on the deck.

Usually, Clark was very fond of the outdoors, and it was true that last summer, he'd rather have swum in a pond or outdoor pool than Lex's, but now he was glad. Because, as cold as it was getting, he could still swim outside, but it would look extremely strange, and he couldn't exactly bring anyone with him. This way, he could have all the fun of swimming without the freezing temperatures and loneliness.

Dipping his toes into the water, Clark kicked his feet as he waited for Lex. Soon enough, his lover appeared in the doorway of the poolhouse, dressed in the purple swim trunks that Clark liked to tease him about. Lex was adamant that he hadn't had them made specifically for him, that there _were_ other people out there who wore purple swim trunks. Clark had just shaken his head and told Lex to send him a picture if he ever actually saw one.

Of course, then Lex had had somebody run around with a camera and snap pictures of men wearing purple swim trunks, so that he could boast to Clark about being right. Clark had asked where he'd gotten them, it being the middle of winter in Kansas and all, and had received the sheepish answer that he'd given his professional photographer a free vacation in Hawaii as long as he took pictures of all the men in purple swim trunks that he encountered.

Clark had, of course, sighed and told Lex that that was a ridiculous thing to do, but Lex was just being Lex, and he supposed that it was nice of him to give the photographer a vacation. And money certainly wasn't an issue, in fact, it never seemed to be with Lex.

Clark wasn't entirely sure how rich Lex was, and he didn't really care. He wasn't intimidated by the amount of Luthor money there was, the way other people were, and Lex was his friend and his lover, not somebody that he went to for expensive things, though he did seem to come away with an awful lot of offers for them, so why did it matter?

"Hey," Lex greeted him. "Why haven't you gotten in, yet?"

Clark gave him a grin, and looked him over from head to toe, reveling in being allowed to do that now that they'd admitted their feelings. "I was waiting for you."

Lex nodded. "Thanks."

"I did it so that I could tease you about the purple swim trunk thing, you know."

Lex rolled his eyes and groaned good-naturedly. "You could have done that from the water!"

"I can't believe you sent somebody on vacation to Hawaii just so that you could prove people other than you wore purple swim trunks."

Lex shrugged. "Why not? It didn't actually cost that much, and the guy deserved a vacation."

Clark rolled his eyes, then pushed himself off the side of the pool, taking a few long, hard strokes out to the center and then stopping to tread water. "Coming?"

Lex nodded, and walked around to the pool's deepest end. Watching as he took a graceful swan dive in, Clark noticed how the muscles in his lover's chest rippled as he made the movement, holding his hands above his head and drawing in a deep breath.

When Lex surfaced, shaking his head to get some of the water away from his eyes and nose, Clark swam quickly over. "You going to do laps?" He asked.

"Do you mind?"

Clark shook his head. "No. I might join you."

Nodding, Lex took another breath, ducked back underwater and made for the side of the pool. Clark watched for a moment, then headed for the other side.

They made several long laps of the pool slowly, warming up before moving into stronger movements. Lex seemed to know every stroke known to man, and Clark stopped to watch him every once in a while, interrupting his own smooth crawl stroke. Finally, it was five-forty, and he pulled himself out onto the side of the pool. 

"It's time for you to go?" Lex asked, holding himself up on the side of the pool.

Clark nodded. "Yeah. Thanks for the chess lesson."

"Sure. I'll see you later."

"Bye."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay] [Appetite] [Reality] [Fine] [Know] [Normality]


	11. Chloe

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: It's been months, and I am really, truly sorry. Anybody who's still on the lookout for this, I'm so glad for you. Summer has started, and I once more, have time to write. So I will be continuing this. Again, sorry!

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. Again, PG-13

* * *

Chapter Ten - Chloe

Clark was preoccupied the next day at school, but he managed to smile and turn his attention to her as Chloe trotted up to him during their first break of the day. "Clark!"

"Hey, Chlo."

"How's Lex?"

Clark shrugged. "Dunno. Okay, so far. The first side-effect of the drug was that it gave him a really weird craving for pineapple-olive-pepperoni pizza, or so he says."

Chloe wrinkled her face in disgust. "Yuck."

"Yeah, but you can take the pineapple off, and then it's fine."

"I guess. So, how are you?"

Clark shrugged again. "Worried. Nervous. Angry at my parents for not understanding."

Chloe looked at him with a piercing look in her eyes. "But they don't know everything, do they Clark?" She asked gently.

Clark started. "You... know?"

She shrugged. "Guessed. So-"

Clark cut her off. "Don't think this is the best place to talk about it, Chlo."

She blushed a little. "Oh. Yeah."

"Come over after school? We can talk."

She nodded. "Yeah. That would be great."

"Okay. I'll meet you in the parking lot after last period?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Clark."

He smiled. "Thank you. I think it'll help to have someone I can talk to."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clark saw Chloe again at lunch, but they sat with Pete and his latest crush, and neither one of them brought it up in their company. Instead, lunch was a brief inquiry over Lex's well-being, and then smalltalk about the next school dance, social function, whatever. Clark tuned out a fair amount of it, which, he figured, could probably account for his not really remembering what had been said.

He met Chloe in the parking lot after school just as they'd agreed, and they managed to leave before Pete showed up and invited himself along. Pete wouldn't think it was strange that they didn't hang out with him that afternoon, after all, they all had their own lives, but he would think it was strange that Clark and Chloe were hanging out _together_ without him.

Clark's mother was in the kitchen when they arrived, baking something for the Talon, and she smiled and said hello before they went out to the barn. His father was in the far fields, but Clark still kept alert to any sounds that could signal he was coming back-- the last thing he wanted his father to walk in on was this conversation.

Sitting down on the couch in the loft, Clark fiddled with a piece of straw he'd picked up as he wondered what to say. Chloe, blunt as ever, made the question moot. "So, you and Lex?"

He nodded, blushing a little.

"When?"

He shrugged. "Two months ago, give or take."

"How'd it happen?"

"Long story. Involves at lot of embarrassing things."

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

She nodded. "Okay."

"Does anyone else know?"

"No."

There was silence for a moment while she pondered what to ask next, and Clark looked up. She didn't look angry or disgusted, which he figured she wasn't, since he probably would have heard about it sooner, instead, she looked a little... hurt?

"Chlo, what's wrong?"

She met his eyes reluctantly. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Us?"

"Me and Pete. Maybe Lana."

Clark shrugged, not really sure of the answer to that. "Pete... he's my best friend. And I think he would take it well... but I'm not one hundred percent sure. I was scared."

"And me, and Lana?"

"Lana... maybe because I think she would be mad. And probably accuse me of using her. Which she has every right to, I have been using her."

"What, to focus on, as a way to not be gay?"

He nodded, blushing a little. "I think so."

Chloe's voice got softer, and a little more hesitant. "And me? Why didn't you tell me, Clark?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I really don't know." He paused. "Are you mad at me?"

She looked up from where she'd been staring at her hands. "No, I'm not mad. I guess I'm just a little... hurt. That you felt you couldn't tell me, for whatever reason."

"I didn't want to hurt you, Chlo."

She smiled weakly. "I know that."

Clark crossed the room to where she was sitting, and bent down to hug her. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You had your reasons, even if you didn't know what they were."

"I should have told you."

"I wish you would have. But it's your life. I'd like to be included, but sometimes we can't tell everyone about everything."

Clark knew only too well how true _that_ was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The phone was, unfortunately, in the kitchen of the Kent farmhouse, so Clark had to wait until both his parents were gone to call Lex. As the phone rang, he fidgeted impatiently, worried about his lover. 

Finally, it was picked up. "Hello?"

"Lex? It's me."

"Hey, Clark." Lex's tone relaxed audibly.

"Were you expecting someone else?"

"Maybe. Why?"

"I could _hear_ the tension in your voice, Lex. You should be resting."

The younger Luthor sighed. "Just my father, calling to bother me now that he can't do it in person."

"You told him he couldn't come see you?"

"Yeah. First smart thing I've done in a while."

Clark could hear the tension in his lover's voice, so he tried to lighten up the conversation a little, despite his raging anger at Lionel. "Really? I thought that was when you finally decided to kiss me?"

Lex laughed. "That, too."

"Cause, let me tell you, that took you long enough!"

"I guess it did."

"So, how are you?" Clark didn't expect to get a straight answer, but he had to ask. He wasn't disappointed.

"Fine."

"Really."

Lex sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get out of this. "A little queasy. Tired. But honestly, I'm okay, Clark."

"That's good."

"Yeah. But the hospital food _sucks_. Bring me some more pizza when you come see me?"

Clark laughed at the aristocratic distain in his lover's voice. "Sure. More pepperoni-olive-pineapple?"

"That particular craving has gone away." Lex sounded mildly disgusted by the idea that he'd eaten that. "Regular cheese sounds much better."

Clark laughed again. "That's good to know. The pizza guy looked at me seriously funny when I told them I was ordering pepperoni-olive-pineapple pizza."

"You'd think they would have heard everything, by now."

"Maybe he was new to the job."

"Maybe. Have you done your homework?"

Clark rolled his eyes. "No, _Mom_."

"I will not be the reason you fall behind in your schoolwork, Clark." Lex was deadly serious.

Clark softened, realizing that Lex was having another one of those insecure 'I'm not good for him' moments. "I promise I got all of last night's done with plenty of time to spare. I'll finish tonight's, too."

"Good."

"Chloe knows about us." Clark had been trying to think of a way to spring that gently, but there just didn't seem to be one.

Lex coughed a little on the other end of the line. "What?"

"I said, Chloe knows about us."

"And how did she figure that out?" Lex didn't sound accusing like his words could have been, merely intrigued.

"She guessed."

"And you didn't deny it?"

"I couldn't, Lex. I've been lying to everyone for long enough. Please don't be mad."

Lex laughed a little. "On the contrary, Clark. I know Ms. Sullivan can keep a secret, and she's a good friend of yours. I think it's good that you have someone to talk with now."

"You're not upset?" Clark hadn't honestly expected Lex to get mad at him, but he was surprised that the younger Luthor wasn't upset at the idea of being outed.

"No."

"Okay."

"How's your homework? Working on anything new in that wonderful English class of yours?"

Clark groaned. "Only you could think that an English teacher who subjects us to novel after novel of Dickens' is wonderful."

"It's amazing literature, Clark. And if you can't appreciate it for that reason, appreciate the fact that you'll be able to out-class everybody else in your knowledge of one of the most famous classical writers." There was a laugh in his voice.

Clark laughed. "Guess so. But no, nothing new in my 'wonderful' English class. Other homework is pretty boring. I haven't gotten a chance to tell Mom and Dad about the calculator, so I'll have to pay you back later."

"Don't worry about it. Don't worry _them_ about it."

Clark seriously considered it, but knew he could never get away with it. "It looks different, and I do my homework at the kitchen table sometimes. They'd notice. And then they're get mad that I didn't tell them."

"Yeah, I suppose so." Lex wasn't thrilled, but his relationship with the Kents was rocky enough, and Clark knew them better than he did. More than that, though, he really didn't want Clark to get in trouble because of him.

More than he already did, that was.

Clark always seemed to know when Lex was debating going into serious internal battles. "Don't do that," he chastised.

"Do what?" Lex was mildly used to it by now, but it was still somewhat surprising every time it happened.

"Go all brood-mode."

"I am not going all 'brood-mode.'" Lex replied in an aristocratic manner that had Clark holding back his laughter.

"Alright, Mr. Blue-Funk."

Lex sighed in a long-suffering way. "I am neither 'broody' nor 'blue-funk-ish, whatever the latter may be."

Clark laughed out loud this time. "It's what my dad used to say," he explained. "Whenever I would get all sullen and not talk and hide in my room, he'd tell me to 'get out of my blue funk and come help with the chores."

Lex mulled it over for a moment. "My father would just ignore me when I did that," he responded a little sadly.

"Your father is an asshole." The teenager's voice was dark and serious.

"Clark!" Lex was a little taken-aback by the vehement assertation and also by the fact that Clark was insulting his father to his face.

"Sorry," he responded sheepishly. "Sometimes I just can't help it, though."

He could hear the smile in Lex's voice as he replied, and sighed softly in the relief that he hadn't made his lover mad. "I know. Believe me, I've called him that and worse."

"He doesn't deserve you."  
Lex went utterly silent. Clark jittered a little in his chair as he waited for the younger Luthor to speak again. He believed what he said to the bottom of his heart, but he also knew that Lex didn't, to the same degree.

Finally, when he responded, it was in an utterly neutral tone. "Well, that's a matter of debate, I suppose." He paused. "How are Chloe and Pete? Have you seen Lana?"

Recognizing that pursuing his chain of conversation would lead nowhere except into a fight, Clark let it go. "Chloe's fine. Like I said, she knows about us. She's a little hurt." He dropped his gaze to the floor unconsciously, feeling bad that he'd caused his friend any hurt. "I didn't know she still thought of me that way."

Lex wasn't about to point out his boyfriend's blindness in the matters of the heart, but it had been pretty obvious to everyone, at least everyone who wasn't _Clark_, that Chloe still had it bad for him. "She'll get past it. She's a good friend."

"I know. And she's been really cool about it. I just wish I didn't have to hurt her, you know? But it's not like there's anything I can do about it."

Lex wondered briefly if there wasn't, but he pushed the thought aside. Though it may or may not have been Clark's choice to fall in love with a Luthor, it wasn't his choice whether he was gay or not. "No. There's not. Just remember that, Clark. It might be hard sometimes, but you'll be a lot happier if you just let yourself be who you are."

Clark's tone went a little young and petulant. "Then why won't you let me tell people about us?"

Lex sighed. "Because that's not part of who you are. That's part of what you feel. The difference might not seem huge right now, but believe me, it is." He paused. "Besides, that wasn't only my decision."

Clark sighed. "I know. Sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now put down the phone and go do your homework, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay." Despite his words, Clark didn't make any move to say good-bye or hang up the phone.

The silence hung for a few moments, then Lex spoke his name. "Clark?"

"Yeah."

"Homework. Go and do it, remember?"

The teenager sighed. "Yeah, I remember. I just don't want to hang up."

"Do it anyway." Lex's voice was firm, but loving.

"Alright. See you tomorrow."

"Don't get in trouble because of me."

"I won't." Clark crossed his fingers in his lap as he spoke. "Bye."

"Good-bye, Clark."

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay] [Appetite] [Reality] [Fine] [Know] [Normality] [Chloe]


	12. Bored

* * *

****

Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

* * *

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

Author's Note: It's been months, again! I'm so bad at this. I start things and then never finish them. But here it is, the next installment to our story, which I will make every endeavor to finish. Someday.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: PG-13 for now. If it goes up, I'll note it here.

* * *

Chapter Eleven - Bored

Used to waking early, it wasn't a huge shock to Clark's system when his alarm went off at five in the morning on Saturday. Granted, he did roll over and hit it repeatedly, cursing himself while he was at it, but he did wake up fairly quickly.

Stumbling down the stairs required a little more alertness than he possessed, apparently, however, and he banged the wall with an invulnerable elbow as he stepped off the bottom stair. Jonathan Kent, sitting at the table and drinking coffee, looked up in surprise. "Clark? What are you doing up this early?"

The teenager smiled as brightly as he could manage this time of morning. "I'm going to see Lex, later. I can finish my chores by ten." He hoped the false confidence he was projecting would help, not hurt, his plan.

His father frowned, but nodded reluctantly. Clark could see the influence of his mother behind this gesture, and made a mental note to thank her later. "Okay."

"Thanks." Clark gave a genuine bright smile this time, and grabbed a piece of bread, toasting it with his heat vision as he moved out of the door. Jonathan just watched him go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At ten o'clock, Clark's chores were finished, just as he had promised. Shoving his homework into his backpack, he hesitated only briefly before adding a clean shirt and pair of underwear. Somehow, he thought his parents might be less argumentative about him staying overnight at the hospital if they didn't learn about it until he was already there.

Lex was a awake and, unsurprisingly, tapping out a memo of some kind on his laptop when Clark arrived. He looked up and gave Clark 'his' smile-- the one intended only for his boyfriend's eyes-- but went back to work without otherwise acknowledging him. Clark knew better than to interrupt. Instead, he sat down on the side of the bed and pulled out his math homework and new calculator, and went to work.

It was forty-five minutes later before Lex spoke, and Clark was almost finished with his math. "Sorry about that, Clark."

The teenager looked up from what he was doing, flashed a bright smile and shook his head. "Don't worry about it." He twisted his head to get a look at the laptop screen. "What were you doing, anyway?"

Lex sighed. "Typing up a response to Gabe's performance report. It was rather long and boring, but you're welcome to read it, if you want."

Clark made a face and shook his head. "I think I'll leave the complicated running-a-business thing to you, thank you very much." A frown flashed across his face. "Unless you want to take me up on my offer."

Lex shook his head. "Sorry. I think I'd go crazy without anything to do, anyway. It's just paperwork, I can handle it."

Reluctantly, Clark nodded. "Okay. But it still stands, whenever."

Lex smiled at the incorrigibility of his boyfriend, and shook his head a little. "You just can't give up, can you?"

Clark flashed the same heart-stopping grin he usually had, and shook his head firmly. "Nope."

Reaching out, Lex wrapped an arm around his lover's neck and pulled him down to the bed. Leaning over, he kissed the top of Clark's head, then allowed the dark-haired teen to sit up and kiss him for real.

The strong taste of mint greeted him, but under it, he could taste a sour flavor that marred the perfection of Lex's mouth, and Clark pulled away as he sensed this, his eyes dark with suspicion. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Lex's forehead wrinkled in puzzlement. "Why would you think I wasn't?"

"You taste funny."

"Shit. You can taste that?"

Clark nodded. "You can't?"

Lex shook his head. "All I can taste is mint. Clears the flavor of vomit fairly well, I might say."

Clark wanted to ask more questions, but Lex had clammed up, and if he pressed further the young Luthor would retreat into his shell far enough that he would be hard-pressed to get him back out today. "Okay."

"Do anything interesting since I talked to you?" The billionaire asked lightly.

Clark groaned, and obligingly launched into the tale of yesterday's episode of high school boredom. "It was hell. Trig doesn't make any sense at all, and everything else is boring!"

Lex got a strange expression on his face. "Do you ever think of doing anything other than Smallville public school?"

"What, like private school? We couldn't afford it, and my parents would never let you pay."

The billionaire shook his head. "No, not like private school. Like, independent study, or correspondence school, or something where you could learn about things that actually interest you."

Clark shrugged. "I am interested. In the Torch, and writing."

"Yes, but am I correct in assuming that, generally, school is boring for you?"

"Yeah."

"You really should look into it. Or, you could just look into taking harder classes."

Clark groaned. "Trig is hard enough. I think more challenging classes might kill me."

Lex smiled. "Think of it this way: are you ever bored in trig?"

He took a moment to think about that, but then Clark shook his head slowly. "No. I guess I'm not."

"Well, then, you could take harder classes, and you wouldn't be so bored."

The teenager nodded slowly again. "Thanks, Lex. I'll think about it."

He grinned, a real, honest grin that Clark didn't see very often, and nodded. "You do that. You're too smart for Smallville public school."

Clark groaned, both amused and exasperated. "Are we going to have _that_ argument again, Lex?" He asked, only half-joking.

Lex shook his head, smirking. "Nope. I'm too smart to get into an argument with my only visitor first thing on the weekend."

Clark returned the evil smirk. "Yeah. You get me too upset and I might disappear." A flash of something went through Lex's eyes, almost to quick to recognize, but he understood and instantly wished he'd kept his mouth shut. "I'm not going anywhere, Lex, you know that, right?"

Lex shrugged. "I know." He didn't sound horribly sure. Though it was hard to tell what Lex was thinking, at the best of times, and now he was more closed off than usual.

"I'm going to be here, every moment of every day that I'm not sitting behind a desk or doing chores, and I'm going to make you so tired of my company that you'll wish I would go away!" Clark made his statement humorously, but with a kind of sincerity beneath it that he hoped Lex understood.

The billionaire nodded, and though Clark couldn't tell if he believed him, there was little more he could say, so he changed the subject. "You bored?"

Lex nodded, with more energy than Clark had seen him devote to anything yet that day. "_Yes_," he responded emphatically.

Clark laughed a little. "Want to go out to the 'fun room'?" The caption marks around the term were obvious.

Pale shoulder shrugged, and Lex looked at his watch. "There'll be people in it."

Clark tried hard not to roll his eyes. "Yes, well, yeah, there probably will."

"Are you bored?" Lex looked totally indifferent, but Clark knew the answer would matter to him, so he paused a moment, before he nodded slowly.

"Honestly? Yeah, a little."

A slow nod, then Lex closed out the window on the laptop and put it aside. "Okay. Want to brush up your chess skills?"

Clark smirked and rose. "What chess skills?"

Soft laughter issued from Lex, and Clark kept a close eye on him as he turned in the bed and slowly rose out of it. He was wearing a gray pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt that was much too large for him, having told the hospital in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to be wearing their gowns.

Restraining himself, Clark carefully did not put out an arm for Lex to hold onto. The younger Luthor looked a little unsteady, but he moved with confidence, as always, and Clark knew he wouldn't appreciate any help until he was ready to ask for it. "You're not that bad, Clark."

Clark lifted an eyebrow. "Really?"

Lex laughed again. "Really." The eyebrow lifted again, this time higher, and Lex retracted his statement. "Well, okay, maybe you are that bad, but you'll get better. You've only been playing for a few weeks."

"_That _I'll believe." Clark opened the door and held it for his lover, then they made their way slowly to the fun room. The unsteadiness in Lex's gait was barely noticeable, and Clark suspected that to anyone else, the Luthor would look like he was taking a slow, comfortable amble, instead of a stiff, slow walk. 

The fun room was only a few doors away, which was good, because Clark wasn't sure Lex was up to walking longer, no matter how good a face he put on. Predictably, however, they ran into Lex's doctor during the fifteen steps they were breaking protocol, and she was not happy.

"Mr. Luthor!" The tone was definitely peeved.

Lex groaned softly, and Clark smirked as his lover's annoyance flashed briefly across his face, before being composed into the polite mask that all Luthors wore when dealing with the public. "Dr. Devon," he greeted his physician, coolly but cordially.

"Mr. Luthor, you are _not_ supposed to be out of bed! And you most certainly are not supposed to be walking around!"

"I apologize. I'm afraid my friend and I were a little bored. We're only going to the recreation room." Lex refused to call it the fun room, apparently not satisfied with the sophistication, or lack thereof, of the term.

"Then you may ride in a wheelchair!"

Lex's face twisted a little, and Clark wanted to laugh. The day someone got Lex Luthor into a wheelchair, he wanted to see it. "I'm afraid I don't use wheelchairs, doctor."

The doctor didn't back off, something that Clark decided he liked about her. Having a Luthor in one's care tended to make one back off rather easily, the combination of the intimidation of the name and the stubbornness of the family being rather overwhelming. "You do now," she informed him hotly.

Clark couldn't help it. The edge of his mouth turned up. But Lex looked like he was getting a little steamed, and the doctor was furious. "Um... maybe we should continue this somewhere else?" He suggested.

There was a break in the arguing, if one could call Lex's polite, but stubborn refusals part of an argument, and Dr. Devon seemed to realize that standing in the middle of a hallway, arguing, probably wasn't good for Lex's health, either. "Let's get you to the fun room, then," she conceded, trying to take Lex's elbow.

Lex skillfully evaded her grasp, which left him pressed rather closer to Clark than was appropriate, were they just friends, but he was willing to give up that bit of the charade to avoid being touched by a stranger. "Certainly."

The doctor glared a little at her troublesome patient, but accompanied them to the fun room and made sure Lex was sitting down before disappearing again without a word. A few moments later, just as Lex and Clark were setting up the chess board, she reappeared pushing a wheelchair. "For when you leave," she told them shortly, and Clark hid a grin behind his hand as Lex glared back at her just as vehemently.

Lex, amazingly, managed to keep his mouth shut until the doctor left, then gave the wheelchair a swift kick, sending it into the nearest wall with a slight _thunk_. "I will _not_ be seen a wheelchair!" He steamed.

Clark smirked. "Well, I could always carry you."

"Not helping," Lex snapped.

Aware that Lex really was upset, and more with the idea of losing the independence of walking than with the anticipated mortification of being seen in a wheelchair, Clark smoothed away all traces of humor on his face. "Sorry."

Lex sighed, but didn't respond. Clark reached out and started setting up the chess board again, and silently, his lover helped.

After an almost entirely silent chess game, Clark put a hand on Lex's as discreetly as he could, and leaned in a little. "You want to leave?" he murmured.

Lex shook his head. "No. I'm fine." He didn't look fine, though. He looked stiff, annoyed, and preoccupied.

"Lex, c'mon, let's go back to your room."

"I'm not getting in the damn _thing_." The way Lex spit out the word was hilarious, and Clark could barely keep himself from cracking up, but somehow, he managed.

"You don't have to," Clark promised, and something seemed to click in Lex's brain. Clark could see the wheels turning, going _I am a Luthor, and nobody gets to tell me what to do_, and he smirked, then quickly sobered as Lex rose.

They made their way back to Lex's room, miraculously avoiding Dr. Devon on the way. Clark sighed when they closed the door and were home-free, and Lex, his good spirits restored, smirked. "She isn't _that_ scary, Clark."

Clark just shook his head. "Maybe not for you. You deal with all sorts of scary people. Me? The scariest person I know is my mom."

"Your mom is just about the scariest person I know, too," Lex deadpanned.

Laughing, Clark flung himself down on the chair next to the bed. Lex made a face, and patted the mattress next to him. "I thought we'd agreed you weren't going to be sitting on that awful thing anymore."

Clark raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Maybe you decided that, but I never heard about it!"

"Well, now you have, so get your ass off that horrible plastic thing and into this horrible hard bed."

Clark laughed again and pressed a kiss to Lex's temple as he slid into bed beside his lover. Lex returned the kiss with one of his own on Clark's cheek, and then yawned a little.

"Tired?"

"It's not even lunch."

Clark rolled his eyes. "That doesn't answer the question."

"I refuse to take a nap before it's even lunchtime."

"Lex, I realize it might be hard to accept, but just because you normally run on five hours of sleep does not mean you can do it now."

The billionaire brushed another kiss to Clark's cheek. "Mother hen."

"Mother hen with a very valid point," he pressed.

This time, Lex rolled his eyes. "Clark, I'm not going to sleep now." It was his 'this is the end of it' tone of voice, and anyone except Clark would have given up instantly.

Clark, however, twisted himself onto his side a little, wrapped his arms around Lex, and levered them both gently onto the mattress. "I'm going to nap, Lex. And you can just rest." He closed his eyes.

"I can't get to the computer from here, Clark." Lex's words were disagreeable, but a little muffled, because Lex himself was snuggled pretty close into Clark's chest.

"That's the idea."

"You're hindering the operation of LexCorp, you know."

"I'm _helping_ the recovery of Lex, thank you very much." Clark opened his eyes briefly and hugged Lex to himself. "Just rest."

Five minutes later, they were both fast asleep.

* * *

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody] [Stay] [Appetite] [Reality] [Fine] [Know] [Normality] [Chloe] [Bored]

* * *

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